ABUSE TRACKER

IRELAND
The Times

Ellen Coyne, Senior Ireland News Reporter
July 21 2017
The Times

The HSE chief executive has suggested there was confusion and “tension” about how much control religious groups had in hospitals, adding that he welcomed plans to distance the Catholic Church from national hospitals.

Tony O’Brien praised a proposal by Simon Harris, the health minister, to carry out a review of voluntary hospitals after the national uproar over a decision to let a religious order own a new maternity hospital.

In March The Times reported that the Sisters of Charity would own the new National Maternity Hospital after it was built with almost €300 million of taxpayers’ money on the order’s land.

Following the controversy, the sisters announced that the order would be stepping back completely from healthcare for the first time in 183 years. It will no longer own St Vincent’s healthcare group, the existing hospital or the new maternity hospital.

Negotiations on the maternity hospital being owned by a new private group, are continuing.

The health minister has expressed concern that a publicly built maternity hospital would not be publicly owned. Mr Harris is also bringing forward plans for a national review of religious involvement in health.

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GUAM
The Guam Daily Post

Mindy Aguon | The Guam Daily Post Jul 20, 2017

Two men who once served as altar boys and were Boy Scouts filed civil complaints in the District Court of Guam against the Archdiocese of Agana and the Boy Scouts of America.

The suits, filed by Attorney David Lujan, seek $10 million each in damages for alleged sexual abuse they endured at the hands of Louis Brouillard, a priest who worked in Guam for several decades and also served as a Boy Scoutmaster.

A.M., now 56, alleges Brouillard exposed himself to altar boys at San Isidro Catholic Church in Malojloj in 1972.

The complaint alleges the priest would talk about pornography and then sexually molest the boys, including A.M., while at the convent after Boy Scout practice, or after serving Mass.

Once the sexual abuse began, A.M. would regularly wear two pairs of jeans whenever he was around Brouillard, the lawsuit states.

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CALIFORNIA
Orange County Register

By KELLY PUENTE | kpuente@scng.com | Orange County Register

PUBLISHED: July 20, 2017

A former Irvine church assistant is suing the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange alleging that she was sexually assaulted by one of its high-ranking priests who previously spent time in a treatment facility for “sexually deviant” clergy.

In her lawsuit filed in Orange County Superior Court on Wednesday, the woman, identified only as Jane Doe, says she was sexually assaulted and harassed by Father Alex Kim in 2016 while working as his assistant when he was pastor at St. John Neuman Church in Irvine. He is also being sued.

The suit alleges that Kim, ordained in 1991, was circulated to various parishes in Orange County and ultimately promoted to pastor despite a decade-long history of sexual misconduct complaints by female parishioners. The diocese sent him to a treatment facility in 2012 before naming him as pastor at St. John Neuman, the suit says.

David Ring, the woman’s attorney, said the diocese was aware of Kim’s “history of exploiting female parishioners” but “turned a blind eye” because of his popularity and success at fundraising.

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INDIANA
nwi.com

Steve Garrison and Lauren Cross steve.garrison@nwi.com, 219-662-5331 lauren.cross@nwi.com, 219-933-3206 Jul 20, 2017

CROWN POINT — A 22-year-old man who previously attended Family Christian Center in Munster is accused of having sex at the church with a 14-year-old girl.

Javyon M. George-Boatman was charged Wednesday in Lake Criminal Court with three counts of sexual misconduct with a minor, according to court records.

Court records listed George-Boatman as a youth leader at the church, but John Ponder, the pastor of Christian Education and Pastoral Care, told The Times on Thursday that George-Boatman is not a youth leader, nor did he serve the church in any official capacity.

The church barred George-Boatman from accessing church property immediately after learning of the allegations, Ponder said.

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MALAYSIA
Astro Awani

KUALA LUMPUR: The amendment to the Legal Aid Act 1971, which is expected to be tabled at the next Parliament session, will enable underage victims of sexual crimes and their family members to get access to legal advice from the Legal Aid Department and lawyers approved by the department.

Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said said the amendment would create a term of Legal Companion, in which legal officers from the department would give the necessary aid and advice to the victims in accordance with the Sexual Offences Against Children Act 2017.

“However, this will not include the court process, only to introduce and to explain to them about the law,” she told reporters at a luncheon with senior new editors here on Thursday.

She said the proposed amendment was a continuity to the government’s efforts to introduce the Sexual Offences Against Children Act 2017 and the newly established Special Child Sexual Crimes Court.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Church of England

By Martin Bashir and Callum May
BBC Victoria Derbyshire programme

Victims of abuse by clergy have criticised the Church of England’s close relationship with the insurer advising it on compensation claims.

They said the Church had cut contact and emotional support from them on the advice of Ecclesiastical – which has a senior clergy member on its board.

An independent reviewer said in one victim’s case “financial interests were allowed to impact practice”.

The Church said it aimed to separate pastoral care from insurance issues.

‘Moral responsibility’

Gilo – a middle-aged man who lives in the south-west of England – told the BBC’s Victoria Derbyshire programme he had been raped in the early 1970s by a City of London clergyman, the Reverend Garth Moore.

Gilo – whose surname he has asked us not to use – said he had made more than 20 attempts to contact senior members of the Church after his decision to report the assaults, but often received no reply.

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MALTA
Times of Malta

Updated at 11.35am

Twenty-four new complaints were submitted to the Church body tasked with investigating cases of abuse and neglect, according to its annual report.

The Commission for Safeguarding this morning announced that it had received 12 new complaints involving minors and another 12 involving vulnerable adults. It did not specify the details of the complaints.

It also revealed that the commission had seven ongoing complaints involving minors, which had been carried over from 2015 and another five involving adults.

Court action, it said, had been taken on behalf of 335 people.

The commission said these had all been court applications filed under the Protection of Minors Act (2012).

The Safeguarding Commission was set up in 2015 taking over from its Response Team. It is tasked with assessing whether a person working for the Church was a risk to children or vulnerable adults.

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CALIFORNIA
Los Angeles Times

Richard Winton

A senior Roman Catholic priest in the Diocese of Orange sexually assaulted and harassed a female church employee last year at a prominent Irvine parish where he was placed despite a similar prior accusation, according to a lawsuit filed by the woman.

Father Alex Kim is accused by his former assistant of sexually assaulting her several times at St. John Neumann Catholic Church. She alleged in the suit that she felt compelled to take a leave of absence to avoid his attacks.

In July 2016, Kim pushed her against a wall in the rectory “and forcibly kissed, groped and fondled her,” said the lawsuit, which was filed Wednesday. Kim then “pulled his genitals out of his pants and rubbed it against” her,” the woman’s complaint alleges. The next day, according to the lawsuit, he sent her “innocuous texts messages as if nothing happened.”

The woman, who is identified only as Jane Doe in the lawsuit, has known Kim since she was a child and described him as once being her spiritual mentor, the suit says.

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UNITED STATES
ABC – The View

The Emmy nominated docuseries ‘The Keepers’ tries to unlock a terrifying mystery of a nun who was murdered nearly 50 years ago. Some believe Sister Kathy was trying to expose a Baltimore priest who spent years sexually abusing girls at the local Catholic school. Did the church and police cover it up? The two women who are seeking the truth Gemma Hoskins and Abbie Schaub join the table to talk about how the cold case brought them together and developments that have occurred since ‘The Keepers’ has been on Netflix.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

July 20 2017

The Police Ombudsman’s investigation into child sex abuse at the notorious Kincora Boys’ Home in Northern Ireland is to conclude this year.

Ombudsman Dr Michael Maguire launched the review after alleged victims complained about the Royal Ulster Constabulary’s (RUC) handling of reports in the 1980s of wrongdoing.

A separate public inquiry, which published its findings in January this year, has already rejected claims that senior establishment figures used the East Belfast institution to target children. Instead, it blamed failings by the health authorities and the RUC after dozens of residents raised concerns.

The Ombudsman’s office said: “We are investigating a total of seven complaints about how police dealt with reports of child sex abuse at the Kincora Boys’ Home in East Belfast.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Amnesty International

Victims of child abuse have told the Secretary of State that they expect him to set up a redress scheme without delay if devolved government is not re-established at Stormont in the coming months.

The abuse survivors, part of the Panel of Experts on Redress, on which Amnesty International is also represented, met the Secretary of State today at Stormont House, where they provided him with a 30-page document and letter calling for action and a start to negotiations with victims. The detailed briefing paper from survivors is based on widespread consultation with abuse victims across Northern Ireland.

Victims are angry that there has been no progress in delivering apologies, a redress scheme and support services for victims because of the absence of a functioning Northern Ireland government. They want UK government to step in without delay, if there is no return of the Northern Ireland Executive in the Autumn.

The report of the Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry was published in January 2017, just days after the collapse of the power-sharing Executive at Stormont. That has meant there have been no Ministers to act on the recommendations contained in the report.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

July 20 2017

Compensation should be paid without delay if devolved government is not restored at Stormont after the summer, child abuse victims said.

Survivors of wrongdoing at residential homes dating back decades urged Northern Ireland Secretary James Brokenshire to establish a redress scheme without delay if powersharing is not re-established in the coming months.

The Historical Institutional Abuse (HIA) inquiry has recommended compensation worth up to £100,000 for the worst affected.

Margaret McGuckin, who suffered abuse as a child at Nazareth House children’s home in Belfast, said: “Today we put the Secretary of State on notice that we expect urgent action from him to establish a redress scheme which meets the needs of victims, should Stormont not be up and running again after the summer.

“Victims of child abuse have been waiting their whole lives for justice. Now they have been hit with further uncertainty and no government, just when they need it most. For abuse survivors, justice delayed truly is justice denied.

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ROME
Headlines from the Catholic World

Rome, Italy, Jul 20, 2017 / 03:02 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- A member of Pope Francis’ commission to protect minors says a new report on the abuse of more than 500 choir boys in Germany points to a current reality in many non-western countries – and that bringing these things to light means progress for everyone.

“It will take time, but this kind of sensitivity that is created by publicly discussing these things of course will push, because people realize what is right and what is wrong, and they realize that they will be questioned if something goes wrong,” Fr. Hans Zollner told CNA July 19.

Fr. Zollner is vice-rector of the Pontifical Gregorian University, director of the university’s Center for Child Protection (CCP), and a member of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors.

He spoke following the July 18 publication of a report on an investigation German lawyer Ulrich Weber carried out on the Regensburger Domspatzen, the official choir for the Regensburg Cathedral.

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TEXAS
Courthouse News Service

ERIK DE LA GARZA
July 20, 2017

EDINBURG, Texas (CN) — Seriously ill and 84 years old, former Catholic priest John Feit will be tried for the 1960 murder of a South Texas beauty queen in late summer, when the last pieces of prosecution evidence arrive, a judge told him Wednesday.

At a brief hearing Wednesday, state prosecutors and defense attorneys agreed to a plan to begin searching for jurors. Both sides said they will be ready for trial after prosecutors receive results from their final evidence tests.

“My understanding is that the analysis has been completed and we are waiting on the reports to come in,” said Hidalgo County Assistant District Attorney Michael Garza. “Apparently, they go through a review process and there’s some delay in that.”

Feit, dressed in orange prison clothes, sat silent and expressionless on the walker he uses in courtroom appearances as Hidalgo County Judge Luis Singleterry addressed him.

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TEXAS
KURV

Final preparations have been set for the murder trial of the former McAllen priest believed to have killed former beauty queen and teacher Irene Garza 57 years ago.

During a brief court hearing Wednesday, prosecutors and defense attorneys confirmed they’re ready for trial, and Judge Luis Singleterry set September 11th as the date for the final pre-trial hearing prior to the start of jury selection.

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CONNECTICUT
New Haven Register

By Randall Beach, New Haven Register
POSTED: 07/19/17

NEW HAVEN >> A New Haven pastor has been sentenced to serve three years in prison for second-degree sexual assault and risk of injury to a minor.

Walter Williams, who was 59 at the time of his arrest last July, lives in Northford section of North Branford. He is senior pastor at the Walk of Faith Church of Christ in New Haven, according to the church’s website.

Police said he was accused of having as many as six sexual encounters with a minor who was a member of the church. According to police, the incidents occurred between July 2015 and April 2016.

The victim’s mother contacted police after she discovered text messages between her daughter and Williams on her daughter’s phone, police said. The mother told police she also saw a graphically disturbing Facebook message from Williams to her daughter.

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UNITED STATES
Religion News Service

A guest post by Mette Harrison

Yet again, a Mormon bishop is in trouble because of sexual abuse.

Erik Wayne Hughes of Mapleton, Utah has been charged with 20 counts of forcible sexual abuse of minors, among other charges. Two now-adult men have come forward to say they remember being drugged and sexually abused by this bishop, a man who ought to have been interested only in their spiritual welfare. They were in their teens at the time.

The police chief said he is “concerned that there is more” abuse in this case, and that other victims may come forward in the future. Furthermore, Hughes has been accused of trying to silence the young men by manipulating their feelings for him as their bishop, allegedly telling them that others had been spreading false rumors about his deeds.

The LDS Church has long prided itself on its “Gold Standard” of protecting abuse victims, including a hotline for bishops to call if they find out about abuse. But there is no such system in place for ward members when the bishops themselves are the problem.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider

ANDREA TORNIELLI
VATICAN CITY

“I wasn’t aware of any sexual abuse”. This was stated by Georg Ratzinger, Pope Benedict XVI’ brother, when he was heard during the investigation into the abuses of the Regensburg Cathedral choirboys from the post-war period to the early 1990s. As the German state is no longer required to investigate time-barred crimes, it was the diocese, and therefore the Catholic Church itself, to promote and finance an independent investigation, which also encouraged victims to give information anonymously.

As it is known, the results presented in a solid 440-page report by lawyer Ulrich Weber, unveils the shocking number of 547 children victims of violence, 67 of whom were sexually abused. The names of some of the abusers, who are now dead, were already known. These facts, which cannot be underestimated or minimized, should however be put in context, namely that for decades corporal punishments were common throughout all schools in the country.

The stories of some of the victims are gruesome because they speak of both excessive punishments but also of ill-treatment at the limit of sadism and of repeated sexual abuse, which took place in the school as well as in the dormitory where the “Cathedral sparrows” lived. The choirboys told that the ones responsible of the blood-beatings were also responsible of the sexual harassment: for this reason, Weber’s lawyer suggested that the molesters would get sexually aroused by knocking out the kids.

What does Monsignor Georg Ratzinger, nowadays in his nineties, have to do with all of this? Benedict XVI’s brother directed the choir for thirty years, from 1964 to 1994. From the report emerges, though it is not so explicit for privacy issues, that the most serious episodes of sexual abuse took place in the 1950s, when he was not there. Monsignor Georg during his thirty-year career as a director has slapped some of the boys, and has publicly apologized for it seven years ago. He has never been, even remotely, accused of having in any way harassed the boys of the Cathedral. However, he was pulled into the scene because someone said he had told him about what was happening in school.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Times

Sean O’Neill
July 20 2017
The Times

Britain should establish a compensation scheme for surviving child migrants who were taken from their families, deported to former colonies and suffered sexual abuse, Gordon Brown told a public inquiry today.

The former Labour prime minister said sending children to farm schools and austere institutions overseas was “a government-enforced form of human trafficking”.

Mr Brown told the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) that an official apology he made on behalf of the government to former child migrants in 2010 only dealt with some of the issues. More evidence had emerged about the scale of sexual abuse of children and the failure of Whitehall to address the problem, he said.

Mr Brown said the issue was even larger than the Jimmy Savile scandal, in terms of the numbers of victims, the period of time involved and Britain’s failure in its duty of care towards children sent overseas.

More than 130,000 children were sent overseas by charities and churches over more than a century. Some 2,000 who were sent to farm schools in Australia between 1948 and 1970 are still alive.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Guardian

Press Association
Thursday 20 July 2017

The former prime minister Gordon Brown has described the forced migration of British children as a bigger sex abuse scandal than that perpetrated by Jimmy Savile.

Giving evidence to the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, Brown said the mass transportation of 130,000 British children overseas between the 1940s and 70s amounted to “government-enforced trafficking”.

He said: “This seems to me as probably the biggest national sex abuse scandal. Bigger than what people have alleged about Savile. Bigger than what people have alleged about individual children’s homes.

“Bigger in scale, bigger in geographical spread, and bigger in the length of time that it went on undetected. I’m shocked about the information that I have seen.”

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ROME
The Tablet (UK)

20 July 2017 | by Daniele Palmer

He ‘experienced shame for what has happened in the Church’ but emphasises ‘everything that was possible and necessary was done’

After being accused of bearing “clear responsibility” for the mishandling of over 500 abuse cases in a Bavarian choir school, Cardinal Müller admits that he feels “shame” but emphasises that he did all that was possible.

Published on Monday (17 July), a report states that 547 boys were abused at a prestigious choir school in Regensburg, Bavaria, between the years 1945 and 1992.

In the report, commissioned by the diocese of Regensburg and compiled by the lawyer Ulrich Weber, Cardinal Müller is accused of having mishandled the cases of abuse, despite them being well known.

In an interview with the Italian daily Il Corriere della Sera, Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Müller, bishop of Regensburg form 2002 to 2012 and ex-prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith, admits that he “experienced shame for what has happened in the Church” but emphasises “everything that was possible and necessary was done.”

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UNITED STATES
Catholic League

To read Catholic League president Bill Donohue’s account of the controversy over Australian Cardinal George Pell, click here.

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GUAM
KUAM

Updated: Jul 20, 2017

By Krystal Paco

Three more clergy sex abuse lawsuits filed in the District Court of Guam today.

44-year-old K.Q. alleges he was sexually molested by Father Ray Techaira, who is now deceased. While attending San Vicente Catholic School., K.Q. alleges he and four other boys were being disciplined by the priest when he told them to drop their pants. The priest then allegedly fondled and kissed each of the boys’ private parts.

56-year-old A.M. and 56-year-old D.M. allege they were sexually molested by Father Louis Brouillard.

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GUAM
Pacific News Center

By Janela Carrera – July 20, 2017

A.M. alleges Louis Brouillard raped him while he was in the shower at the rectory.

Guam – Now facing 93 cases of sexual abuse, the latest claim against the Archdiocese of Agana is by a man who says former priest Louis Brouillard regularly took him and other Boy Scout members to the movie theaters to watch pornographic films.

The latest case is filed by a 56-year-old man with the initials A.M. who says that in the early 1970s, Brouillard would regularly molest him and other altar boys and boy scout members.

A.M. says Brouillard took the boys several times to the Johnston Theater to watch pornographic films “with the specific purpose of grooming the minor boys to be comfortable with sexuality and make them amenable to Brouillard’s act of molestation.”

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ROME
Crux

Inés San Martín VATICAN CORRESPONDENT

ROME – Earlier this week, an independent investigation commissioned by the Diocese of Regensburg in Germany found that at least 547 former members of the Regensburg Domspatzen boys’ choir were subjected to some form of abuse over a fifty-year period, including 67 who were victims of sexual violence.

The 440-page report, which spanned the years between 1945 and early 1990s, found plausible accusations against 49 members of the Church for physical abuse, including nine for cases of sexual molestation.

The report collects cases of corporal violence, from slaps to physical punishment, and sexual abuse, ranging from inappropriate caresses to rape. It was released on Tuesday by the diocese on its website, and presented in a press conference by Ulrich Weber, the lawyer leading the investigation of claims of abuse at the choir and two associated boarding schools..

Most of those named by the victims have already died. The crimes, however, fall outside Germany’s statute of limitations, meaning they are no longer open to prosecution.

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MINNESOTA
National Catholic Reporter

Luke Hansen | Jul. 20, 2017

WEST ST. PAUL, MINN.

Gilbert Gustafson was ordained a priest in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis in 1977, served as an associate priest at St. Mary of the Lake Parish in White Bear Lake, Minnesota, until 1982, pleaded guilty to the sexual abuse of a minor in 1983, and served four and a half months in jail and 10 years’ probation. Gustafson has admitted to abusing four boys between 1978 and 1982. He was not criminally charged in the other cases.

From 1983 to 2002, Gustafson was not assigned to parish ministry, but he was in residence at two different rectories, and he served as a chaplain for a local monastery of women religious. From 1983 to 1997, Gustafson served in various administrative roles for Catholic Charities of St. Paul and Minneapolis. From 1997 to 2002, he worked in the archdiocese’s chancery office.

In June 2002, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops established the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People, commonly known as the Dallas Charter, to address sexual abuse of minors by Catholic clergy. Following the charter, Gustafson was permanently removed from active priestly ministry. He could no longer present himself as a priest, use a clerical title, wear clerical attire or celebrate the sacraments.

Gustafson, however, remains in the clerical state. Thus, in accord with the Code of Canon Law, Canon 1350, Paragraph 1, the archdiocese has continuously provided financial support for his basic needs. In 2006, the archdiocese concluded that Gustafson, since he had sexually abused minors, was “permanently and totally disabled” from engaging in his occupation as a priest, and therefore was “entitled to vested retirement benefits” under the Pension Plan for Priests in the Archdiocese. Gustafson also participates in an archdiocesan monitoring program akin to civil probation.

From 2004 to 2014, Gustafson worked for a consulting firm that contracted with Catholic parishes and other non-profit groups to provide services like strategic planning, executive coaching and human resource utilization. Today he continues to do consulting work with non-profits, including some Catholic institutions (but not parishes), as a consultant in the area of leadership development. Gustafson said he has never had any contact with children in his consulting work.

Since 2012, Gustafson has collaborated with Susan Pavlak on the project Uncommon Conversation, which seeks healing and reconciliation among survivors, perpetrators and others involved in child sexual abuse in the Catholic Church. In a separate interview, Pavlak describes being sexually abused by her high school religion teacher, a former nun. This interview with Gustafson, edited for length and clarity, took place in West St. Paul, Minnesota.

Hansen: What was your early experience of the church?

Gustafson: I was born in 1951 — the youngest of four children — and grew up in a classic middle class family of the 1950s. Mom and Dad were very engaged in our parish. I always liked church. It was a wonderful, warm, safe environment. The nuns and priests were an extension of my family. Church became my second family and still is family.

I started being an altar boy at about age 9. In junior high, when I could serve during the Triduum, I was just taken by it. I felt moved inside.

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NEW YORK
Frum Follies

I urge all my readers to become part of this demonstration in front of the Boro Park beis medrish of the Novominsker Rebbe, head of Agudath Israel of America’s Council of Sages (aka Moetzes), @ 1644 48th St., Brooklyn, NY at 3 pm, Sunday July 23.

The target of this demonstration, Rabbi Yaakov Perlow, the Noveminsker Rebbe, and head of Agudath Israel of America, is personally culpable for protecting abusers from criminal prosecutions. He even helped keep “Rabbi” Yehuda Kolko on as a teacher in spite of his known record of abusing yeshiva boys for 30 years. He did it in spite of pleas for involvement by the late Rabbi Avigdor Miller, an extremely important Haredi leader.

At present Agudah and its head, the Novominsker Rebbe discourage reporting sex abusers to the police, and lobby the New York State legislature (successfully) to not reform the statute of limitations. All sorts of attempts have been made to persuade the Rebbe to change his stance, all to no avail. He is more interested in protecting yeshivas from embarrassment and from having to pay former students for the terrible damage caused by abuse.

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ISRAEL
YNet News

Ariela Sternbach, Yael Friedson|Published: 19.07.17

A teacher at a religious school—who was convicted of indecent assault on his students—was sentenced Wednesday to seven years in prison and two years of probation.

Aharon Shlomo Lisson, 34, from Beitar Illit, was a teacher at an ultra-Orthodox middle school in the city. In December, he was convicted of sexually assaulting three brothers aged 13-15.

The teenagers’ mother left the courtroom in tears after the verdict, saying, “Justice has finally been served, but no punishment can give my children back their joy of life and their lost childhood and teen years.”

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UNITED STATES
SoundCloud

In this controversial episode the #RCP team discuss Netflix’s latest docuseries The Keepers about the unsolved murder of Sister Cathy Cesnik, a beloved nun and Catholic high school teacher in Baltimore. After disappearing on Nov. 7, 1969, Cathy’s body was found nearly two months later but to this day, the case remains unresolved. Only days later Joyce Malecki disappeared from a shopping mall on Nov. 11 1969 in Glen Burnie, a suburb of Baltimore. Her body was found the next day face down in remote woods. This case also remains unresolved.

In the ’90s, the case returned to the spotlight after one of Cathy’s former students accused the high school’s chaplain of sexual abuse, and claims that she was taken to Cathy’s body and threatened.

Jim and Laura deep dive into these murders and discuss with Lisa the victimology, their crime scene assessment and analysis and opine as to whether the murders of Sister Cathy Cesnick and Joyce Malecki are linked.

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GERMANY
International Business Times

By Isabelle Gerretsen
July 20, 2017

The brother of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI established a “reign of fear” while head of boys’ choir at one of Germany’s most famous Roman Catholic schools, where more than 500 pupils were physically and sexually abused between 1945 and 2015.

A report published this week accused 49 members of abusing 547 young boys who sang in the Regensburger Domspatzen choir over a period of 60 years.

Benedict’s older brother, Georg Ratzinger, was the choirmaster between 1964 and 1994.

His successor, Roland Büchner, told German newspaper Die Zeit that Ratzinger was an “impulsive, fanatical and merciless”

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FLORIDA
No Sacred Cows

July 19, 2017 by David G. McAfee

Details are still emerging from authorities about Roshad Thomas, a Florida youth minister and businessman who admitted to molesting young boys, but his Facebook posts are revealing even more information.

Thomas, 41, worked with children at a church and a private school – both in Tallahassee. He is now being investigated for molesting at least five different boys, and his social media posts are enough to raise some eyebrows.

For starters, it seems like Thomas directed a great number of his posts directly toward “high school guys” or “middle school guys.” Often these posts advertised camping events or private bible studies, and the timing overlaps with the victims’ abuse.

Just last month, Thomas posted that “ALL high school guys” are invited to a retreat to discover “the man that God has called you to be.” He added, “Don’t be scared! Come! You won’t regret it. I promise.”

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WASHINGTON
Bellingham Herald

BY CALEB HUTTON
chutton@bhamherald.com

A former music director at Bellingham Baptist Church must serve time in prison for molesting a girl for years, a Superior Court judge has ruled.

Judge Raquel Montoya-Lewis sentenced Paul Michael Bane to 5 years in prison, the same amount of time she handed the church’s youth pastor, Christopher Trent, a month ago in a separate case of long-term sex abuse of a different girl.

Confession

Bane, 57, arrived at the Bellingham police station one morning in October 2015 to confess he had been sexually touching a girl for about 8 years, according to court records. At that point police had not spoken with the girl, who was living in the Midwest, but Bane told police the girl’s story, whatever it might be, could be trusted.

According to his report, Bane became a kind of father figure to the girl when she was younger. The sexual abuse began around the time the victim turned 12 years old. Bane would kiss her, sexually touch her, and later, started tying her with a clothesline during sex acts.

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KENTUCKY
Courier-Journal

Matthew Glowicki, @MattGlo

Jurors heard from one of three women Wednesday who allege they were sexually assaulted by a former Louisville pastor when they were children in the 1990s.

On the first day of evidence in the trial, prosecutors told jurors that 79-year-old Allen Lehmann sexually abused the three girls a number of times during the 90s when the youth made brief visits to his home.

At the time of the alleged abuse, Lehmann was living in Louisville as pastor at Trinity Chapel Assembly of God church.

The three girls were all under age 15 at the time, according to court records.

The youngest of the sisters, now 25, testified for more than two hours Wednesday. She told jurors of the Lehmann’s welcoming home where she enjoyed many a sloppy Joe and Jell-O salad. But those recollections were intertwined with painful memories of Lehmann touching her sexually on three occasions beginning when she was 6.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Wochenblatt

[The laity movement We are Church has asked the Regensburg bishop Rudolf Voderholzer to have further church institutions investigated after the final report on abuses at the Domspatzen.]

Die Laienbewegung Wir sind Kirche hat den Regensburger Bischof Rudolf Voderholzer aufgefordert, nach dem Abschlussbericht zu Missbräuchen bei den Domspatzen auch weitere Kircheneinrichtungen untersuchen zu lassen.

Die KirchenVolksBewegung Wir sind Kirche sieht den Abschlussbericht des vom Bistum Regensburg beauftragten Sonderermittlers, des Rechtsanwalts Ulrich Weber, als schmerzhaften und notwendigen Schritt an, dem jedoch weitere Schritte im Bistum Regensburg und auch in anderen deutschen Bistümern noch folgen müssen. In dem Bericht klingen mehrfach die besonderen systemischen Bedingungen innerhalb der Domspatzen-Organisation an, die dazu beitrugen, dass die verschiedenen Formen der Gewalt dort in besonderem Maße ausgeübt wurden und trotz der Exzesse damals nicht an die Öffentlichkeit gelangten.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Spin

[In the context of the abuse scandal at the Regensburger Domspatzen, Kapellmeister Roland Büchner raised serious accusations against his predecessor Georg Ratzinger. “There was a system of fear,” said Büchner about the time the brother of Pope Benedict XVI was choir master at the school.].

Missbrauchsbeauftragter fordert in Domspatzen-Fall Entschuldigung von Ex-Bischof

Im Zusammenhang mit dem Missbrauchsskandal bei den Regensburger Domspatzen hat Kapellmeister Roland Büchner schwere Vorwürfe gegen seinen Vorgänger Georg Ratzinger erhoben. “Es herrschte ein System der Angst”, sagte Büchner über die Zeit des Bruders von Papst Benedikt XVI. als Chorleiter der Domspatzen der Wochenzeitung “Die Zeit” laut einer Vorabmeldung vom Mittwoch. “Das muss ans Licht, auch wenn es weh tut.”

Büchner warnte davor, die Gewalttaten gegen 547 ehemalige Chorknaben zu verharmlosen. Zwar habe es sich meist nicht um Missbrauch, sondern um Schläge gehandelt. “Das waren aber nicht ‘nur’ Ohrfeigen, sondern regelrechte Misshandlungen – es wurde gewütet, es waren Körperverletzungen.”

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DEUTSCHLAND
religion@orf

[Regensburg: Heavy accusations against Pope’s brother.]

In Zusammenhang mit dem Missbrauchsskandal bei den Regensburger Domspatzen hat Kapellmeister Roland Büchner schwere Vorwürfe gegen seinen Vorgänger Georg Ratzinger erhoben.

„Es herrschte ein System der Angst“, sagte Büchner über die Zeit des Bruders von Papst Benedikt XVI. als Chorleiter der Domspatzen der Wochenzeitung „Die Zeit“ laut einer Vorabmeldung vom Mittwoch. „Das muss ans Licht, auch wenn es wehtut.“

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DEUTSCHLAND
Focus

[George Ratzinger, brother of Pope Benedict XVI, was an accomplice to physical and sexual abuse at the Domspatzen cathedral choir, according to the survivors an witnesses.]

Die Bilanz ist erschreckend: Mindestens 500 Kinder aus dem Regensburger Domspatzen-Chor wurden Opfer von Gewalt, 67 wurden sexuell missbraucht.

Unhaltbare Zustände, in die offenbar auch Georg Ratzinger, der Bruder des früheren Papst Benedikt XVI., verwickelt war – als Mitwisser, wenn es nach der Analyse der Ersteller des gestern veröffentlichten Untersuchungsberichtes geht. Als Mittäter, wenn es nach Aussagen der Opfer und Zeugen geht, die ebenfalls in dem Bericht zu Wort kommen.

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DEUTCHLAND
YouTube

Published on Mar 2, 2015

[The Domspatzen file.]

http://www.domspatzen.de/ http://www.swr.de/betrifft/

Nachrichten über systematischen Kindesmissbrauch im berühmtesten Chor der katholischen Kirche erschütterten 2010 die deutsche Öffentlichkeit. Schnell trat das Bistum in Regensburg diesen

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FRANKREICH
Yahoo! Nachrichten

[The French organization ‘La Parole Libérée’ provides victims of sexual abuse of the Catholic Church with a platform to tell their stories and bring to light the truth.]

Die französische Organisation ‘La Parole Libérée’ gibt Opfern sexuellen Missbrauchs der katholischen Kirche eine Plattform, um ihre Geschichten zu erzählen und die Wahrheit ans Licht zu bringen.

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DEUTSCHLAND
BR

[Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Müller sees no reason to apologize in connection with the abuse cases at the Domspatzen at Regensburg. In the final report presented yesterday, he was named as one of the central figures. Cardinal Müller stated in an interview with the Catholic News Agency (KNA) that he himself had initiated the process of reworking in 2010 after first reports of attacks became known. Earlier, Johannes-Wilhelm Rörig, the abuse commissioner of the federal government, had said that he hoped that the former Regensburg bishop.]

Kardinal Gerhard Ludwig Müller sieht keinen Anlass, im Zusammenhang mit den Missbrauchsfällen bei den Domspatzen Regensburg um Entschuldigung zu bitten. In dem gestern vorgelegten Abschlussbericht war er als eine der zentralen Figuren genannt worden.

Kardinal Müller erklärte in einem Interview der Katholischen Nachrichten-Agentur (KNA), er habe selbst 2010 den Aufarbeitungsprozess eingeleitet, nachdem erste Meldungen über Übergriffe bekannt wurden. Daraus ergebe sich auch die Antwort auf die Frage nach einer Entschuldigung. Zuvor hatte Johannes-Wilhelm Rörig, der Missbrauchsbeauftragte der Bundesregierung, gesagt, er hoffe, dass sich auch der frühere Regensburger Bischof und heutige Kardinal Müller bei den Opfern entschuldigen werde.

Domspatzen unterliegen nicht Kirchenrecht
Müller wies darauf hin, dass die Domspatzen keine Stiftung kirchlichen Rechts seien.

“Somit war dies ein Angebot, die zuständigen Personen und finanziellen Mittel der Diözese Regensburg für diese in ihren Dimensionen noch unabsehbare Arbeit zur Verfügung zu stellen. Im Abschlussbericht wurde mir ausdrücklich dafür gedankt.” Kardinal Gerhard Ludwig Müller

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DEUTSCHLAND
Sueddeutche Zeitung

[The former Bishop of Regensburg, Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Mueller, has called for an apology from Johannes-Wilhelm Rörig, the federal government’s abuse commissioner. The cardinal accused him of spreading “false statements and false information.” Müller, who was interviewed by the Passau Neue Presse, rejected the comments from the commissioner that he had carried off the cover-up of the massive abuse at the Regensburger Domspatzen. He said that he gave this information to the institutions of the diocese so that the investigation could begin. Müller was Bishop of Regensburg from 2002 to 2012.].

Der ehemalige Regensburger Bischof Kardinal Gerhard Ludwig Müller fordert eine Entschuldigung von Johannes-Wilhelm Rörig, dem Missbrauchsbeauftragten der Bundesregierung. Es würden “Falschaussagen und falsche Informationen” verbreitet, sagte Müller der Passauer Neuen Presse und wies den Vorwurf zurück, er habe die Aufklärung des massenhaften Missbrauchs bei den Regensburger Domspatzen verschleppt. Er habe “erstmals diese Aufklärungsarbeit an die Institutionen des Bistums übertragen, sodass mit der Untersuchung begonnen werden konnte”, sagte Müller, der von 2002 bis 2012 Bischof von Regensburg war.

Der Missbrauchsbeauftragte Rörig hatte den heutigen Kurienkardinal kritisiert: Müller habe stets von Einzelfällen gesprochen, aber die strukturellen Versäumnisse nicht untersucht. “Es wäre den Betroffenen zu wünschen, dass er sich wenigstens jetzt für die verschleppte Aufarbeitung entschuldigen würde”, sagte Rörig.

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TEXAS
RGV Proud

[with video]

By: Amy Martinez
Posted: Jul 19, 2017

HIDALGO COUNTY, Texas – A former priest is one step closer to learning his fate in connection with the murder of a McAllen school teacher. After being extradited to the Rio Grande Valley, 83-year-old John Feit was back in court for a final pre-trial hearing Wednesday morning.

“I think the purpose of this hearing was to try and establish a ground mark or a plan for jury selection and get this case tried before a jury.” Stated the Prosecution.

Within 10 minutes attorneys for both parties agreed on a trial date. On September 11, 2017, a Hidalgo County jury will be asked to listen to testimonies and observe pieces of evidence before reaching a verdict. This, after a change of venue motion was denied in early June. In March of 2016, Feit was transferred from Maricopa County, Arizona to Hidalgo County.

It was there where he was charged for the 1960 murder of Irene Garza. The decades old cold case was reopened after Hidalgo County District Attorney Ricardo Rodriguez said there were new facts and evidence in the case of the former priest. Those details have yet to be released.

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GERMANY
NPR

July 19, 2017

COLIN DWYER

Over a span of roughly a half-century, at least 547 boys at a famed Catholic choir school experienced some form of significant abuse, according to an independent investigation released Tuesday. The 440-page report details an environment that some former pupils likened to a “prison, hell and a concentration camp,” which persisted for decades under the direction of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI’s older brother.

The education at the Regensburg Domspatzen — a boys’ choir that enjoys worldwide renown and has been around for upwards of a millennium — “was oriented toward top musical achievements and the choir’s success,” the report said, as translated by The New York Times. “Alongside individual motives, institutional motives — namely, breaking the will of the children with the aim of maximum discipline and dedication — formed the basis for violence.”

Of the hundreds of cases listed by attorney Ulrich Weber, whose report was commissioned in 2015 by the Regensburg diocese, 67 are believed to have been cases of sexual abuse.

And “these are not 547 cases where an individual was affected once,” former choir member Alexander Probst told Reuters. “Rather, this was an ongoing practice over decades where 547 children were tormented, abused, mistreated and socially harmed.”

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KANSAS
KSHB

Tom Dempsey
Jul 19, 2017

KANSAS CITY, Kan. – A day after the Archdiocese of KCK announced the suspension of priest Scott Kallall due to alleged wrongdoing, the KCK Police Department confirmed it was investigating the case.

The Archdiocese announced in a statement Monday afternoon that Kallal was suspended from his position at Holy Spirit Catholic Church in Overland Park after two sources came forward with allegations of wrongdoing.

Church leaders said a preliminary investigation revealed “violations of some of the Archdiocese’s safe environment guidelines which all clerics, employees and volunteers are asked to observe when interacting with young people,” including one incident involving a minor.

On Tuesday, a man claiming to be the father of the child spoke to 41 Action News.

The father alleged that in the summer of 2015, Kallal inappropriately tickled his 11-year-old daughter and touched her breast during a weekend gathering at St. Patrick Catholic Church in KCK.

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NEW ZEALAND
New Zealand Catholic

Catholic parishes and religious communities across New Zealand and Australia are preparing for a global e-conference in August which will reflect on the topic — “Gospel Leadership in Times of Chaos: the Hope of Pope Francis”.

Australia’s former Foreign Minister, Professor Bob Carr and US theologian and expert on Vatican II Professor Massimo Faggioli are among the keynote speakers at the e-conference on August 10 which is being presented by BBI-The Australian Institute of Theological Education in partnership with the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference.

The e-conference, now in its 13th year, is popular in New Zealand where it has attracted strong interest over recent years. …

“I am looking forward to a timely and spirited discussion at the e-conference”, explained one of the key speakers, Australian business leader Elizabeth Proust.

As deputy chair of the Truth Justice and Healing Council in Australia, Ms Proust has been shocked by the extent of clergy abuse highlighted through the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

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AUSTRALIA
The Standard

ANDREW THOMSON
20 Jul 2017

UPDATE, 7.30pm: Paul David Ryan, who served in Warrnambool and Ballarat, has been identified as the priest who has been charged with seven sex crime charges.

UPDATE, 3.20pm: A Former Warrnambool priest was served with seven sex crime charges in Western Australia on Thursday morning.

The charges relate to two complainants and include counts of rape, sexual penetration of a child aged under 16 years and indecent assaults.

The 68-year-old former priest has been summoned to appear for a filing hearing in the Melbourne Magistrates Court on August 4.

Earlier: ​A FORMER Warrnambool priest is in the process of being charged with historical serious sex offences involving city schoolboys​, including rape.

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

Melissa Cunningham

Former Ballarat priest Paul David Ryan will front a Melbourne court next month over a string of historical child sex offences.

The 68-year-old was charged this month with multiple offences against a number of alleged victims from across Victoria.

The charges include rape, indecent assault and sexual penetration of a child under 16 years old.

Detectives from Victoria Police’s Sano taskforce, the squad set up to investigate historic child sexual abuse, are believed to be investigating Mr Ryan in the wake of evidence revealed in the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

The charges are believed to date back to the years between 1981 and 1985 when Mr Ryan was a priest and the alleged victims were students at Christian Brothers College in Warrnambool.

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GUAM
Pacific Daily News

Haidee V Eugenio, heugenio@guampdn.com July 20, 2017

Now-deceased priest Ray Techaira sexually molested five San Vicente Catholic School minor students at the same time as punishment for getting into trouble during school hours, according to one of the latest lawsuits filed Thursday in the U.S. District Court of Guam.

Two other lawsuits, filed by former altar boys, accuse former priest Louis Brouillard of sexual abuse and molestation. The three plaintiffs are represented by attorney David Lujan.

The lawsuits filed by K.Q., A.M. and D.M. bring to 95 the total number of childhood sexual abuse cases filed in local and federal courts against the Archdiocese of Agana.

K.Q., now 44, accused Techaira of sexually molesting and abusing him when he was a student at San Vicente Catholic School in Barrigada, where Techaira was a teacher.

“One day during school hours, K.Q. and four other boys who were also students at San Vicente got into trouble and were being disciplined by Techaira. While the boys were with Techaira, Techaira ordered K.Q. and the four boys to drop their pants. Techaira then proceeded to fondle and kiss each of their (private parts),” the lawsuit says.

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El sacerdote salesiano, Henry David Betancourt Morales, fue liberado y absuelto en abril de 2016. Pese a las acusaciones por pornografía infantil, la congregación de Los Salesianos lo aceptó de regreso en un oratorio de San Juan Bosco, en Puebla.

A Betancourt se le acusó por el delito de pornografía en el tipo de almacén de videos o imágenes de personas menores de 18 años de edad con actos sexuales o exhibicionismo corporal con fines sexuales, reales o simulados sin fines de comercio o distribución. Sin embargo, el presbítero fue liberado el 29 de abril del 2016 y ya se encuentra reinstalado en el oratorio que pertenecen a la comunidad salesiana.

Ciudad de México (SinEmbargo/PeriódicoCentral).- Después de que la Procuraduría General de la República (PGR) acusó al padre salesiano Henry David Betancourt Morales por el delito de pornografía infantil en Puebla en 2014, el religioso fue absuelto, liberado en abril del 2016 y reinstalado en la congregación de Los Salesianos de San Juan Bosco en Puebla.

Salesianos es el nombre que reciben los miembros de la Familia Salesiana. Se agrupan entorno a la congregación de Salesianos de Don Bosco o Sociedad de San Francisco de Sales fundada por San Juan Bosco el 18 de diciembre de 1859 en Turín, Italia, para la atención educativa y formativa de los jóvenes que en sus sociedades se encuentran en situaciones de desventaja económica, marginalidad o en riesgo, de acuerdo con información de su página web.

La misión, menciona la congregación, “es la educación de jóvenes, niños y niñas como herramienta para el desarrollo de los pueblos. Una educación de calidad basada en el amor, la razón y los valores cristianos para construir un mundo para todos”.

Juan Bosco se supone que fue un sacerdote y educador italiano del siglo XIX que fundó la Congregación Salesiana. Supuestamente promovió “un moderno sistema pedagógico conocido como Sistema Preventivo para la formación de los niños y jóvenes” y promovió “la construcción de obras educativas al servicio de la juventud más necesitada, especialmente en Europa y América Latina”.

Esa es la congregación que ha acogido de regreso a Henry David Betancourt Morales.

De acuerdo con información de la Dirección de Centros Penitenciarios en el Estado,Henry David Betancourt Morales ingresó el 4 de febrero del 2014 al penal de San Miguel y fue puesto a disposición del Juzgado Cuarto de Distrito en el estado por el proceso 03/2014.

A Betancourt se le acusó por el delito de pornografía en el tipo de almacén de videos o imágenes de personas menores de 18 años de edad con actos sexuales o exhibicionismo corporal con fines sexuales, reales o simulados sin fines de comercio o distribución. Sin embargo, el presbítero fue liberado el 29 de abril del 2016 y ya se encuentra reinstalado en el oratorio que pertenecen a la comunidad salesiana.

El presbítero Betancourt Morales fue detenido el jueves 6 de febrero del 2014 en la madrugada por presuntamente poseer pornografía infantil. La evidencia utilizada para incriminar al religioso fue encontrada los días 21 y 22 de febrero de 2013 cuando la PGR cateó el oratorio de San Juan Bosco de la capital poblana, ubicados en las calles 17 Poniente y 78 poniente, donde aseguraron documentos, equipo de cómputo y teléfonos celulares.

Entre los objetos encontrados en el cateo, la autoridad federal decomisó un par de discos duros, revisó habitaciones de los sacerdotes e interrogó a los clérigos Víctor Manuel Flota, Andrés Ibarra, al rector Cirilo Valdés así como a Betancourt Morales. A todos se les cuestionó sobre su relación con los más de 2 mil niños entre 10 y 17 años inscritos en los talleres de valores y en las actividades deportivas que se desarrollan en ambos oratorios salesianos. Después se confirmó que la PGR señaló al presbítero por contar con miles de imágenes de pornografía infantil.

De acuerdo a fuentes de la PGR, en los aparatos electrónicos de Betancourt, entre ellos una computadora marca Lenovo, fueron hallados videos y fotografías de menores que exhibían sus partes íntimas o sosteniendo relaciones sexuales, razón que motivó la orden de aprehensión en su contra.

En ese entonces, Periódico Central contactó a Daniel Beltrán, el abogado defensor del religioso salesiano quien aseguró que su defendido jamás pudo explicar de qué crimen se le acusó:

No me ha sabido explicar bien de qué se le acusa. No sabe. No le han informado el delito por el que lo tienen preso, lo mantuvieron incomunicado durante la detención y recibió tratos pésimos. Sí, le mostraron la orden de aprehensión correspondiente pero eso no daba pie para que fuera objeto de maltrato, explicó en ese entonces el abogado Daniel Beltrán tras una primera reunión con su defendido.

La aportación educativa es muy amplia, desde la más sencilla formación elemental que se da en los centros de alfabetización, pasando por la formación profesional, hasta la enseñanza superior en algunas universidades. Desarrollando diferentes propuestas educativas, procurando rescatar lo lúdico, y estimulando las potencialidades en todas las dimensiones del ser humano.

CNDH INVESTIGARÁ ABUSOS EN ALBERGUE DE GTO

La Comisión Nacional de los Derechos Humanos (CNDH) atraerá el caso de los albergues Ciudad de los Niños en los estados de Guanajuato y Michoacán e investigará presuntas violaciones a los derechos humanos de niñas, niños y adolescentes que han sido probablemente víctimas de abusos físicos y sexuales.

El pasado 11 de julio salió a la luz pública una denuncia anónima y la resolución de un amparo quepusieron en evidencia graves violaciones a los derechos de niños, niñas y adolescentes albergados en la Ciudad de los Niños en Salamanca, dirigida por el sacerdote Pedro Gutiérrez Farías, las cuales ocurrieron con complicidades de autoridades e instancias oficiales como los sistemas DIF estatal y municipal y el Registro Civil. El lugar de acogida ha recibido amplio respaldo de funcionarios y políticos en el estado y nivel federal.

Tras saber del caso, el Sistema para el Desarrollo Integral de la Familia, mediante la Procuraduría Estatal de Protección a Niñas, Niños y Adolescentes (PEPNNA), tomó la determinación de implementar medidas de protección enfocadas en la intervención del inmueble.

Este miércoles, en un comunicado, la CNDH rechazó todo acto de violencia contra niñas, niños y adolescentes, así como toda conducta que esté al margen de la ley, y demandó a las autoridades competentes “atender con urgencia este caso mediante investigaciones imparciales, profesionales, a fondo y con respeto a sus derechos humanos”.

El organismo abrió una queja de oficio y ya solicita informes a diversas autoridades a fin de integrar el expediente.

La Procuraduría de los Derechos Humanos del Estado de Guanajuato ha venido practicando diversas diligencias en investigación de los hechos y ha expresado su mejor disposición de coadyuvar con la CNDH en la investigación.

La CNDH demandó a la sociedad y autoridades respeto a la dignidad y capacidad de las personas menores de edad; fomentar su participación efectiva en los ámbitos en que se desenvuelven; sensibilizarlos sobre la necesidad de denunciar las violaciones a sus derechos humanos.

El organismo advirtió que realizará todas las acciones que resulten necesarias para el esclarecimiento de los hechos, y en su momento, emitirá la resolución que conforme a derecho corresponda.

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COLOMBIA
W Radio

[The journalist (sic) whose story inspired the film Spotlight speaks in La W about the sexual abuse of the victim when he was a child by a Catholic church priest. Note: Mr. Saviano is an advocate but not a journalist.]

El periodista cuya historia inspiró la película Spotlight habla en La W sobre el abuso sexual del que fue victima cuando era un niño por parte de un sacerdote de iglesia católica.

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UNITED STATES
These Stone Walls

POSTED BY FR. GORDON J. MACRAE ON JULY 19, 2017

Father George David Byers and I were both recipients of unexpected recognition for our respective writings this summer. Father Byers, whose status as a Missionary of Mercy has been extended by Pope Francis, received a First Place citation by the Catholic Press Association for his articles in Catholic media about the Year of Mercy. Father Byers tried to play it down, but it’s a bigger deal than he lets on. [See: Missionaries of Mercy: “New Phase” from the Holy See (Amoris laetitia internal/external forum guidelines?)]

I, on the other hand, should shout from the rooftops the most unexpected recognition ever bestowed upon These Stone Walls. TSW has been cited by an organization to which I have never aspired. The site, Today’s Martyrs Resources for Understanding Current Christian Witness and Martyrdom, published a short list commending “organizations engaged in original reporting, evangelical witness, political advocacy, refugee services and other activities, led by people who have experienced some degree of persecution firsthand.”

The page of commendations at Today’s Martyrs includes Aid to the Church in Need International, Open Doors International, Foundation for Relief and Reconciliation in the Middle East, Issues of Rights and Justice, Revival Chinese Ministries International, China Aid, and (Who would have thought) These Stone Walls.

When I was notified of this recognition, I at first thought it was due to my posts, “Criminal Aliens: The ICE Deportation of Augie Reyes,” and “Dreamers of Home The ICE Deportation of Kewei Chen.” It made sense that articles about the treatment of our fellow humans during deportation proceedings caught the attention of this international Christian human rights forum.

But I was wrong in that assumption. My writing about my friends, Augie and Chen, may have caught the eyes of some social justice concerns, but the persecuted people that the Today’s Martyrs site recognizes as the subjects of TSW’s “original reporting and evangelical witness on contemporary Christian martyrdom” are Catholic priests. Let it sink in for a moment, please, that this concern for the persecution and suppression of fundamental rights for priests comes not from a Catholic human rights forum, but from an Evangelical Christian one.

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IDAHO
National Catholic Reporter

Dan Morris-Young | Jul. 19, 2017

The prosecution of an Idaho diocesan priest accused of sexually exploiting a U.S. airman from Mountain Home Air Force Base a year ago ended in a mistrial July 7.

Elmore County District Court Judge Jonathan Medema “declared a mistrial because the jury was unable to come to a unanimous decision,” apparently in part because of resistance or advance bias on the part of one juror, reported the Mountain Home News.

A new trial for Fr. Victor Jagerstatter, 40, has been scheduled for March 7, 2018.

While administrator of Our Lady of Good Counsel Parish in Mountain Home, Idaho, Jagerstatter was charged with raping the airman early in the morning of July 9, 2016, while the man was unconscious in a room allegedly rented from the priest.

During the proceedings, according to the Mountain Home News, Elmore County deputy prosecuting attorney Jessica Kuehn entered evidence gathered by the Mountain Home Air Force Base’s Office of Special Investigations and Sexual Assault Response coordinator.

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UNITED STATES
CBS News

[with video]

A crime series has prompted new calls for the Baltimore Archdiocese to release documents about a controversial priest.

“The Keepers” is a Netflix documentary series following Father Joseph Maskell and his alleged abuse of teenage girls at a Catholic high school.

It explores whether Maskell, who died in 2001, was connected to the unsolved murder of a nun.

More than 40,000 people have signed an online petition since the documentary’s release, reports CBS News’ Jan Crawford. …

“To my knowledge, the church has never voluntarily released any documents pertaining to the clergy abuse crisis,” said Terry McKiernan of Bishopaccountability.org.

McKiernan’s organization, which has no affiliation with the church, has published abuse documents from about a dozen archdioceses and religious orders. But he says, in each case, the files were released only after the church was legally forced to do so.

The Baltimore Archdiocese has paid nearly half a million dollars to more than a dozen people Maskell is accused of abusing. In a statement, they say state law and church policy precludes them from releasing his records because they include “personnel records, health records” and “attorney-client communications.”

“The Keepers” is just the latest crime drama to lead to public outcry over perceived injustices. The podcast, “Serial,” along with television series like “The Jinx” and “Making a Murderer” have both pushed audiences to dissect evidence on social media and led to re-examination in each case.

“The Keepers” director Ryan White says the audience could now be a critical component to accessing Maskell’s file—and cracking the case.

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AUSTRALIA
Lexology

Corrs Chambers Westgarth

Jared Heath
Australia July 19 2017

Over the last five years, a number of high-profile Royal Commissions have inquired into a range of important issues, including child sexual abuse, home insulation, trade unions, family violence, nuclear fuel and child detention. What lessons can be drawn from the history and practice of Royal Commissions and other inquiries in Australia?

Royal Commissions have served an important role of informing successive governments, both in an inquisitorial and policy context. They are an option for responding to a crisis and a call for action, as well as a mechanism for developing public policy.

Over the past six months, Corrs has conducted extensive research into the history of Royal Commissions and inquiries at a Commonwealth level, as well as in New South Wales and Victoria (including New South Wales special commissions of inquiry and Victorian boards of inquiry). In this article, we set out some of the major findings from our research, including what we see as the key trends and lessons that can be learnt.

5 key trends

Below are five of the most interesting trends our research identified:

1. Despite the recent spate of Royal Commissions, there has actually been a decline in the number of them over time.

At the Commonwealth level for example, the number of Royal Commissions peaked at 54 between 1910-1929, but over the last decade, there have been only four.

2. Inquisitorial inquiries are now more common than policy inquiries.

At the Commonwealth level, 60% of all Royal Commissions have been policy inquiries, but over the last 4 decades 60% have been inquisitorial inquiries.

Both trends one and two could be explained by the development and growth of the public service, including the proliferation of specific sources of policy advice (e.g. the Commonwealth Productivity Commission) and standing investigative and regulatory bodies (e.g. the Independent Commission Against Corruption (NSW) and the Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission (Victoria)). However, the family violence and nuclear fuel cycle inquiries could also suggest a return to policy inquiries where the existing political or bureaucratic systems are unable to satisfactorily address complex or wicked problems.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Domradio

[The investigation report on abuse at the Regensburger Domspatzen shows frightening figures. For the child protection expert Father Hans Zollner it is a a dark chapter which also affected peers from his homeland. Domradio.de: The report shows that over 500 victims have experienced physical violence.The number could be closer to 700 cases. How did you feel when you heard of the numbers? Father Hans Zollner (Head of the Child Protection Center of the Institute of Psychology of the Gregorian University in Rome): These are shocking figures. I was born in Regensburg. I know Etterzhausen and Pielenhofen, that is in my neighborhood where I grew up. These were institutions that played a major role in my childhood. We knew how important this choir is and what reputation it has. It is a staggering number, but behind every number hide people. Many people whose lives have been destroyed or very badly wounded, which is very disturbing.]

Der Untersuchungsbericht zum Missbrauch bei den Regensburger Domspatzen weist erschreckende Zahlen auf. Für den Kinderschutzexperten Pater Hans Zollner ein dunkles Kapitel, das auch Gleichaltrige aus seiner damaligen Heimat betraf.

domradio.de: Aus dem Bericht geht hervor, dass über 500 Domspatzen körperliche Gewalt erfahren haben und fast 70 Chorknaben sexuell missbraucht wurden. Die Dunkelziffer soll bei etwa 700 Fällen insgesamt liegen. Sie sind selber gebürtig aus Regensburg. Wie ging es Ihnen, als Sie von den Zahlen hörten?

Pater Hans Zollner (Leiter des Kinderschutzzentrums des Institutes für Psychologie der Universität Gregoriana in Rom): Das sind erschütternde Zahlen. Ich bin in Regensburg geboren. Ich kenne Etterzhausen und Pielenhofen, das ist in meiner Nachbarschaft, in der ich aufgewachsen bin. Das waren Institutionen, die in meiner Kindheit eine große Rolle gespielt haben. Wir wussten, wie bedeutend dieser Chor ist und welchen Ruf er hat. Es ist eine erschütternde Zahl, aber hinter jeder Zahl verbergen sich Menschen. Viele Menschen, deren Leben zerstört oder sehr schwer verwundet worden ist, was sehr erschütternd ist.

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GRMANY
Catholic News Service

By Carol Glatz Catholic News Service
7.19.2017

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — More than 500 boys suffered abuse at the hands of dozens of teachers and priests at the school that trains the prestigious boys choir of the Regensburg Cathedral in Germany, said an independent investigator.

Former students of the Domspatzen choir reported that the physical, emotional and even sexual abuse at the school made life there like “a prison, hell and a concentration camp,” said Ulrich Weber, the lawyer leading the investigation of claims of abuse at the choir and two associated boarding schools.

A “culture of silence” among church leaders and members allowed such abuse to continue for decades, Weber said as he presented the final report on his findings during a press conference in Regensburg July 18.

The investigation, commissioned by the Diocese of Regensburg, found that at least 547 former members of the Regensburg Domspatzen boys choir in Germany were subjected to some form of abuse, according to Vatican Radio. Of those victims, 67 students were victims of sexual violence, the radio said.

The 440-page report, which spanned the years between 1945 and the early 1990s, found highly plausible accusations against 49 members of the church of inflicting the abuse, with nine of them accused of being sexual abusive. The Diocese of Regensburg and the Domspatzen choir supplied links to the report and related news stories or resources on their respective web sites: www.bistum-regensburg.de and www.domspatzen.de.

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NEW YORK
SOME PEOPLE LIVE MORE IN 20 YEARS…

For Immediate Release
Contact Asher Lovy
347-369-4016
Asher@ZAAKAH.org

Advocates against child sexual abuse protest President of Agudath Israel of America for protecting secrets, not children

(New York, NY): ZAAKAH, an organization that advocates reforms that will end child sexual abuse in the Ultra-Orthodox Jewish community, is protesting outside the President of Agudath Israel on Sunday. The protest will be at the Novominsker Yeshiva – 1644 48th street in Boro Park – on Sunday,July 23rd at 3 PM. The protest is against Agudath Israel’s opposition to the Child Victims Act and their policy that victims must ask a rabbi for permission before reporting sexual assault to the authorities.

“These two policies, coupled, are responsible for the coverups of thousands of cases of child sexual abuse. These policies, enacted and promoted by Yaakov Perlow, are in large part responsible for the continued sexual abuse of children in Charedi communities, and the continued apathy and indifference toward victims of child sexual abuse on the part of Charedi communities.Together, these two policies actually incentivise the coverup of abuse and coercion of victims by setting a goal for rabbis and community members who want to cover up abuse: Since the victim has to go to a rabbi, make sure the rabbi keeps the victim quiet until he turns 23, and it will no longer be an issue.” says Asher Lovy, organizer of the event.

“According to many studies, it takes, on average, between 10 and 30 years for victims to come forward about being abused sexually. Yaakov Perlow, President of Agudath Israel, knows this. He knows the harmful effects of sexual abuse its victims – suicide, PTSD, eating disorders, addiction, problems with relationships, emotional trauma, physical trauma, to name a few – and despite being fully aware of the high costs of treating the effects of child sexual abuse, Yaakov Perlow, and the rest of the Moetzes, continue to set policies for Agudah that not only deny existing victims justice, but put our children’s futures and lives in danger by enabling the continuation of child sexual abuse. Yet they continue to oppose legislation to eliminate the Statute of Limitations for child sexual abuse, and open a 1 year retroactive window for old cases, allowing survivors of child sexual abuse to get justice from their abusers and the institutions that protect them.” said Lovy.

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GERMANY
Yahoo! News

AFP News
July 19, 2017

The former choirmaster of a Catholic school in Germany where more than 500 children were abused, including sexually, was a “fanatic” who was “feared” by pupils, his immediate successor said Wednesday.

Georg Ratzinger, older brother of former Pope Benedict XVI, led the famous millennium-old choir in the southern city of Regensburg between 1964 and 1994.

He was “impulsive, even fanatical,” a “merciless” teacher when “imposing his idea of musical discipline,” the current choirmaster, Roland Buechner, told German weekly Die Zeit.

“Afterwards, he could be the gentlest person in the world. Some pupils saw him as a model, others feared him as someone who would beat them,” he added.

Ratzinger, now aged 93, has said he knew nothing about the violence at the school.

But Buechner, 63, recalled that under Ratzinger’s baton, “a system of fear ruled” among members of the choir.

“It wasn’t ‘just’ about slaps, but genuine physical abuse. People raged, there were injuries,” he said.

A report published Tuesday detailed some 547 cases of abuse at the Regensburg school, site of one of the biggest such scandals to have struck the Catholic church in Germany.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Sueddeutsche Zeitung

[Why it is so difficult for the Catholic Church to admit abuse? Cardinal George Pell is back in his native Australia. A short film sequence showing how coming from Singapore he is led by police officers and security guards to a white limousine at Melbourne airport. Cardinal Pell, the quasi-finance minister of the pope, one of the most powerful men in the Vatican, is to answer the question before a court in Melbourne next Wednesday.

The accusation: “historical sexual assaults”.What exactly is meant by this is unclear. For several years now, men have been publicly reported and reported that Pell had committed abuse. The Australian judiciary considers this to be serious enough to initiate proceedings. And Pope Francis gave the cardinal the “permission for a time-out”.

There is no end in sight in the scandal surrounding the sexual abuse of children and adolescents in the Catholic Church.]

Von Matthias Drobinski

Kardinal George Pell ist zurück in seiner australischen Heimat; eine kurze Filmsequenz zeigt, wie er, von Singapur kommend, auf dem Flughafen von Melbourne von Polizisten und Sicherheitsleuten zu einer weißen Limousine geleitet wird. Es hat ja nicht das Heimweh den 76-Jährigen dazu gebracht, die lange Reise von Rom um die halbe Welt auf sich zu nehmen. Kardinal Pell, als Quasi-Finanzminister des Papstes einer der mächtigsten Männer im Vatikan, soll kommenden Mittwoch vor einem Gericht in Melbourne Rede und Antwort stehen. Der Vorwurf: “historische sexuelle Übergriffe”.

Was genau damit gemeint ist, bleibt unklar. Seit einigen Jahren gehen immer wieder Männer an die Öffentlichkeit und berichten, Pell habe sich an ihnen vergangen. Die australische Justiz hält dies für schwerwiegend genug, um ein Verfahren einzuleiten. Und Papst Franziskus hat dem Kardinal die “Erlaubnis für eine Auszeit” gegeben. Seine Ämter in Rom ruhen.

Es ist kein Ende abzusehen im Skandal um den sexuellen Missbrauch von Kindern und Jugendlichen in der katholischen Kirche. Vor 15 Jahren brachten die Reporter des Boston Globe ans Tageslicht, wie der Priester John Geoghan Schuljungen sexuelle Gewalt antat und seine Kirchenvorgesetzten ihn deckten. Vor sieben Jahren gingen in Berlin die Opfer zweier Priester des Canisius-Kollegs an die Öffentlichkeit und lösten in Deutschland eine Welle der Enthüllungen aus, in allen Bistümern, in Internaten wie in Ettal – oder eben bei den Regensburger Domspatzen. Der schonungslose Abschlussbericht, den nun der Rechtsanwalt Ulrich Weber vorgelegt hat, ist einer der Belege dafür, dass die katholische Kirche sich auf den für sie schmerzhaften Weg der Aufarbeitung gemacht hat – nachdem anfangs viele Vertreter das Ausmaß der Verfehlungen leugneten.

Das ist vorbei. Es gibt nun einige Untersuchungen, die sich der Frage nähern, warum es gerade in der katholischen Kirche so viele Fälle sexueller Gewalt durch Priester und Kirchenmitarbeiter gab. Da war das Bild der heiligen Kirche, das nicht beschmutzt werden durfte, weshalb Täter geräuschlos versetzt und Opfer mundtot gemacht wurden. Da war der Männerbund, in dem man komplizenhaft über Zölibatsverstöße schwieg, war die Überforderung der Patres in den Internaten. Da waren aber auch Eltern, die alle Hilferufe ihrer Kinder überhörten und Klassenkameraden, die Teil des gewalttätigen Systems waren. Die katholische Kirche hat Opfer entschädigt. Sie hat Täter ihrer Ämter enthoben, Präventionsprogramme aufgelegt – an der päpstlichen Universität Gregoriana gibt es nun ein eigenes Zentrum für Kinderschutz. Manchmal hört man Kirchenvertreter grummeln: Jetzt könnte man mal die alten Geschichten zu den Akten legen.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Lowell Sun

By Andy Metzger, State House News Service
UPDATED: 07/19/2017

BOSTON — In 2004, Dudley police investigated what they believed to be a crime: a sexual relationship between a 30-year-old English teacher and a 16-year-old boy who was her student.

It was not a crime, Dudley Police Chief Steven Wojnar told the Legislature’s Education Committee on Tuesday.

Since 2005, Wojnar said he has been advocating for a new law to bar adults in authority from sexual relationships with teenagers and he has been perplexed about why lawmakers have not put a statute on the books.

“Nobody’s explained why,” Wojnar told the News Service.

Salem Sen. Joan Lovely this session filed an omnibus bill (S 295) that specifically outlaws teachers and other school employees from sexually abusing high school students. Offenders could be punished with up to five years of imprisonment under the bill.

Lovely said she is unsure why the bill has not moved over the years, but she has a theory.

“I think this is such an uncomfortable subject that people don’t want to talk about it,” the senator told the News Service.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Epoch Times

[Johannes-Wilhelm Rörig demands apology: Ex-Bishop has done nothing against a hundredfold sexual abuse at Domspatzen. The commissioner of the Federal Government for Questions of Sexual Child Abuse, Rörig, has accused the former Regensburg bishop and present Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Müller of serious failures in the treatment of the sexual abuse scandal at the Regensburg choir.].

“Unter dem damaligen Bischof Müller wurde eine umfassende, proaktive Aufarbeitung unter Einbeziehung von Betroffenen leider versäumt”, so der Beauftragte der Bundesregierung für Fragen des sexuellen Kindesmissbrauchs, Johannes-Wilhelm Rörig, mit Blick auf den Domspatzenskandal.

Der Beauftragte der Bundesregierung für Fragen des sexuellen Kindesmissbrauchs, Johannes-Wilhelm Rörig, hat dem früheren Regensburger Bischof und jetzigen Kardinal Gerhard Ludwig Müller schwere Versäumnisse bei der Aufarbeitung des sexuellen Missbrauchsskandals bei den Regensburger Domspatzen vorgeworfen.

„Unter dem damaligen Bischof Müller wurde eine umfassende, proaktive Aufarbeitung unter Einbeziehung von Betroffenen leider versäumt“, zitierte die Onlineausgabe der „Passauer Neuen Presse“ am Mittwoch den Missbrauchsbeauftragten.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Frankfurter Allgemeine

[Sadists in the spiritual garb: The final report on the abuse cases in the Regensburg choir testifies to the incalculable physical and sexual violence inflicted on the children by priests, teachers and educators.]

Der Abschlussbericht zu den Missbrauchsfällen bei den Regensburger Domspatzen zeugt von unfassbarer körperlicher und sexueller Gewalt, die den Kindern von Priestern, Lehrern und Erziehern angetan wurde. Die Kirche hatte lange Zeit nur Ignoranz für die Opfer übrig.

18.07.2017, von ALBERT SCHÄFFER, MÜNCHEN

Mehrfach hat Ulrich Weber am Dienstag bei der Vorstellung des Abschlussberichts zu den Missbrauchsvorwürfen bei den Regensburger Domspatzen Fragen damit beschieden, sie ließen sich nicht in zwei oder drei Sätzen beantworten. Der Bericht des Regensburger Anwalts, der als unabhängiger Ermittler eingesetzt war, umfasst 440 Seiten – doch auch sie reichen nicht aus, um ein Geschehen zu begreifen, das ein Fanal für die katholische Kirche ist. Sie setzte über Jahrzehnte in einer ihrer renommiertesten Erziehungsinstitutionen Kinder und Jugendliche einer unfassbaren körperlichen und sexuellen Gewalt von Priestern, Lehrern und Erziehern aus. Und sie begegnete lange Zeit Opfern, die den Mut fanden, ihr Schicksal zu offenbaren, mit „Ignoranz und Desinteresse“, wie Weber es in seinem Bericht nennt.

Der Bericht kann nicht ohne Statistiken auskommen: Mit mindestens 547 gibt der Ermittler die Zahl der Opfer an, die nach 1945 bis in die neunziger Jahre in der Vorschule und dem Gymnasium der Domspatzen geschlagen oder sexuell missbraucht worden seien. Die Dunkelziffer schätzt er weit höher ein. Es sind Zahlen, hinter denen sich beklemmende Einzelschicksale verbergen. „Meine fröhliche Kindheit endete, als meine Eltern mich am ersten Schultag der 3. Klasse in dem Internat in Etterzhausen zurückließen“, wird eines der Opfer in dem Bericht zitiert. Von da hätten die Erzieher „uneingeschränkt Gott“ gespielt: „Angst ist bis heute mein ständiger Begleiter“.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Focus

[Alexander Probst, one of the abuse victims at the Regensburger Domspatzen has written his story of suffering in the boarding school of the world-famous boy choir. In the book he talks about sexual abuse, beatings, his fear of director, teachers and prefects. FOCUS Online publishes passages from the book.]

Mindestens 547 Chorknaben der Regensburger Domspatzen sind Opfer von körperlicher oder sexueller Gewalt geworden. Das geht aus dem am Dienstag vorgelegten Abschlussbericht zum Missbrauchskandal bei dem weltberühmten Chor hervor.

Zu den Missbrauchsopfern bei den Regensburger Domspatzen gehört auch Alexander Probst. Der Mann aus Dietfurt hat seine Leidensgeschichte im Internat des weltberühmten Knabenchors aufgeschrieben. In dem Buch berichtet er über den sexuellen Missbrauch, die Prügel, seine Angst vor Direktor, Lehrern und Präfekten. FOCUS Online veröffentlicht Passagen aus dem Werk. (“Von der Kirche missbraucht. Meine traumatische Kindheit bei den Regensburger Domspatzen und der furchtbare Skandal” von Alexander Probst mit Daniel Bachmann ist im Riva-Verlag erschienen und kostet 19,99 Euro.)

Auszug aus Kapitel: “Lieber Vati, ich glaube, ich bin der Bub, den Du Dir wünschst.”
Präfekt Hansch hat alle Jacken mitgebracht. Mittlerweile haben sie alle ihre Nummern. Das war ein Riesendurcheinander in den ersten Tagen, weil sie von Anfang an nummeriert mitgebracht werden mussten, aber nicht alle Mütter der Aufforderung nachgekommen sind. Jetzt hält Präfekt Hansch eine der Jacken hoch. Mit lauter Stimme sagt er: „97.“ Ich schaue zu Boden, ich will es nicht sehen. Ich höre es laut klatschen, dann fängt 97 an zu heulen. Hansch schnauzt ihn an und wendet sich an alle.

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DEUTSCHLAND
cath.ch

[“Painful, necessary step, which must be followed.” We Are Church commenting on the final report on the elucidation of the abuse scandal at the Regensburger Domspatzen said more work must be done.]

Wir sind Kirche zum Abschlussbericht zur Aufklärung des Missbrauchskandals bei den Regensburger Domspatzen

Pressemitteilung München/Regensburg, 18. Juli 2017

Die KirchenVolksBewegung Wir sind Kirche sieht den heutigen Abschlussbericht des vom Bistum Regensburg beauftragten Sonderermittlers, des Rechtsanwalts Ulrich Weber, als schmerzhaften und notwendigen Schritt an, dem jedoch weitere Schritte im Bistum Regensburg und auch in anderen deutschen Bistümern noch folgen müssen. In dem Bericht klingen mehrfach die besonderen systemischen Bedingungen innerhalb der Domspatzen-Organisation an, die dazu beitrugen, dass die verschiedenen Formen der Gewalt dort in besonderem Maße ausgeübt wurden und trotz der Exzesse damals nicht an die Öffentlichkeit gelangten.

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ROME
Vatican Radio

Pater Zollner: Missbrauchsopfer brauchen das Gespräch

(Vatican Radio) Father Hans Zollner, SJ says a new report on abuse at a prestigious German musical institution is an “important step forward.” Father Zollner is President of the Centre for Child Protection of the Pontifical Gregorian University, and a member of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors.

The report identified hundreds of instances of physical abuse, as well as dozens of cases of sexual abuse of members of the Regensburger Domspatzen boys choir in Germany. Forty-nine members of the Church are accused of abusing the children, including nine persons accused of carrying out sexual violence against children.

In an interview with Vatican Radio, Fr Zollner said the report shows that Bishop Rudolf Voderholzer of Regensburg “has taken seriously all the allegations, that he did not shy away from all that would ensue.”

The fact that the investigation was carried out independently, and conducted to the highest scientific standards, all with the willing cooperation of the local Church, “shows that the bishop is very courageous in taking on an issue that has been looming for many years.” Zollner acknowledged that the scandal of abuse at the choral institution was “the talk of the city” for many years, but it is only now that the facts have become “plain, in the light of day.” Bishop Voderholzer, he said, “has done something that will bring at least the chance of some justice for the abused.” It will also give institutions the opportunity to review their procedures with regard to screening personnel, and to responding to reports of abuse.

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FRANCE
20 Minutes

AFP

[Vaucluse: Abbot of the Institut Notre-Dame-de-Vie is charged with sexual assault.]

Nouvelle affaire de pédophilie au sein de l’Eglise ? Un abbé de l’institut Notre-Dame-de-Vie à Venasque (Vaucluse) a été mis en examen fin juin pour des abus sexuels sur une mineure et relevé de ses fonctions, a-t-on appris ce lundi auprès du responsable des prêtres.

Selon le responsable des prêtres de l’institut, le père Benoît Caulle, la mise en examen de l’abbé le 27 juin pour « des faits graves d’abus sexuels sur mineure » serait intervenue à la suite d’une plainte déposée par la victime pour des faits datant de 11 ans.

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FRANCE
La Croix

Loup Besmond de Senneville, le 18/07/2017

Le prêtre, qui a été mis en examen le 27 juin pour abus sexuels sur mineure, est relevé de toutes ses fonctions ecclésiastiques.

Ses responsables font part de leur « immense compassion » pour la jeune femme à l’origine de la plainte.

Un prêtre, membre de Notre-Dame de Vie (NDV), a été mis en examen pour abus sexuels sur mineure, a révélé cet institut séculier installé dans le sud de la France dans un communiqué publié le 14 juillet.

Le prêtre a été mis en examen le 27 juin à la suite d’une plainte déposée par une jeune femme. « Lui sont reprochés des faits graves d’abus sexuels sur mineure, commis il y a 11 ans », peut-on lire dans le communiqué. Le prêtre a été placé sous contrôle judiciaire.

Le Vatican informé

En attendant que « la justice se prononce », les responsables de l’institut NDV ont pris « des mesures d’éloignement de tout mineur » et ont interdit au prêtre « tout exercice public de son ministère ». Ils ont également « informé de cette mise en examen » la Congrégation pour la doctrine de la foi, à Rome.

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FRANCE
La Croix

In a statement released on July 14, the Notre Dame de Vie institute in France revealed accusations against one of its priests.

Loup Besmond de Senneville

The Notre-Dame de Vie (Our Lady of Life) movement revealed in a statement released on July 14 that one of its priest members is being investigated for the sexual abuse of a minor.

The secular institute is based in the south of France.The priest was placed under investigation on June 27 following a report lodged by a young woman.

“He is charged with serious acts of sexual abuse of a minor committed eleven years ago,” the statement said.

The priest has since been placed under judicial oversight.

Vatican informed

While waiting for “justice to be done”, Notre-Dame de Vie (NDV) leaders have taken “measures to distance [the priest from] any minor” and forbidden him from “any public exercise of his ministry”.

They have also informed the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in Rome of the indictment.“I have tremendous compassion towards this young woman and her loved ones,” said Fr Benoît Caulle, who is responsible for NDV priests, in the statement.

“These acts, which the Church absolutely condemns, are profoundly destructive.”

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MINNESOTA
National Catholic Repoter

Luke Hansen | Jul. 19, 2017

WEST ST. PAUL, MINN.
In this interview, Susan Pavlak, a lifelong resident of St. Paul, Minnesota, describes being sexually abused by her high school religion teacher, a former nun, beginning in 1970. The abuse, according to Pavlak, happened on several occasions over four years. The alleged perpetrator, whom Pavlak has chosen not to identify by name in this interview, has never been charged in a criminal court; and Pavlak has never sought damages from any party in a civil court.

Pavlak has sought reconciliation and restitution outside of the legal system. In 2001, in the presence of an official of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, Pavlak met with the person she said abused her, she explained, in order to “restore right relationship with her.” In 2002, Pavlak utilized a non-adversarial process to settle with the archdiocese, which agreed to reimburse her high school tuition.

Pavlak, a retired operations manager, has collaborated with Gilbert Gustafson, a perpetrator of child sexual abuse, on the project Uncommon Conversation, which seeks healing and reconciliation among survivors, perpetrators and others involved in child sexual abuse in the Catholic Church. Gustafson was ordained a priest in 1977, pleaded guilty to the sexual abuse of a minor in 1983, served four and a half months in jail, and was permanently removed from active priestly ministry in 2002. This interview with Pavlak, edited for length and clarity, took place in West St. Paul, Minnesota.

NCR: What was your early experience as a Catholic?

Pavlak: My family’s life was centered on faith, family and security. My grandfather and father were police officers, and my father ended his career as the federal marshal for the district of Minnesota.

My family was very involved in parish life. My folks chaired the capital campaign for our parish.

I attended Catholic grade school and high school. My experience was pretty uniformly good, except for the occasional evil nun. In my day, you could still get hit in Catholic school. We had Mass every day. Today I go to Mass every week, and I am an active member of my community.

What happened during your junior year of high school?

The student council leaders were asked to arrive a week or two before school started and give a little speech for the incoming faculty. Afterward a teacher came up to me and introduced herself as a religion teacher and student council liaison. I also learned from her that she recently left a religious order and was living in community with two former sisters and a sister on leave. That was my first introduction to my perpetrator.

I had just turned 16. She was, I believe, 25.

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FLORIDA
WTXL

Ashley Richmond Jul 18, 2017

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) – Some Tallahassee parents are on edge after a man who works with local children is arrested for sexual abuse.

The Leon County Sheriff’s Office arrested 41-year-old Roshad Thomas on six counts of sex offense against a child.

Thomas has been working with kids in the Tallahassee area for more than a decade. According to his LinkedIn page, he was a Youth Pastor at Cavalry Chapel for more than 13 years.

He’s also worked at Maclay School. A statement from Kimberly McWilliams, Maclay School’s Director of Communication, reads: “Earlier today, it was brought to our attention that Roshad Thomas, a former member of the Maclay School faculty, who taught Life Management in the Upper School during the 2016-2017 school year, was arrested for alleged sexual misconduct committed prior to 2015. Mr. Thomas also worked with several of our sports teams and Middle School Life Management classes. After speaking with the authorities, the allegations do not involve any students from Maclay.”

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GERMANY
La Croix

At least 547 children were the victims of physical and sexual violence in the Domspatzen Choir at the Regensburg cathedral in Germany between 1945 and 1995. After two years of public inquiry, a final report requested by the diocese has been made public.

Delphine Nerbollier, Berlin
Germany

In light of the vast scale of the sexual abuse and violence scandal in its cathedral choir, the Diocese of Regensburg commissioned an independent lawyer, Ulrich Weber, to report on the misconduct which first became public in 2010.

The final report, which was published on Monday, lists 547 children whose claims of mistreatment between 1945 and 1992 is said to have been “highly plausible”.

Of these, 500 are alleged to have been victims of physical violence, 67 of sexual offenses and twenty who were victims of both.Famous for its choir, the Regensburger Domspatzen is a Catholic institution oriented towards musical performance. …

Forty-nine offenders were identified, including nine for sexual abuse. In Weber’s view, the primary school principal “personally” as well as his prefects were “responsible for the violence”.

Georg Ratzinger, the brother of Pope Benedict XVI, who was director of the choir between 1964 and 1994, was also implicated. He is said to have “turned a blind eye and failed to intervene despite his knowledge of the facts”.

Michael Fuchs, the vicar general of the Diocese of Regensburg, defended him nevertheless.Fr Ratzinger did not know of the sexual violence but simply recognized that had “slapped” students and underestimated the extent of the violence in the institution, Fr Fuchs said.

Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Müller, who was bishop of Regensburg when the scandal broke out in 2010, was also criticized for having put a brake on the investigation which was launched seven years ago.“We have made mistakes and we have learned a lot,”

Fr Fuchs said on Monday, recognizing that the Church “should have reacted better and sooner”.

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NEW YORK
Road to Recovery

THE DIOCESE OF ROCKVILLE CENTRE, NEW YORK, HAS OPPOSED AMENDMENTS TO THE NEW YORK STATE STATUTE OF LIMITATIONS REGARDING SEXUAL ABUSE OF CHILDREN WHICH CAUSES VICTIMS OF SEXUAL ABUSE TO BE RE-VICTIMIZED

THE DIOCESE OF ROCKVILLE CENTRE SHOULD STOP OPPOSING STATUTE OF LIMITATIONS AMENDMENTS REGARDING CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE IN ORDER TO GIVE CHILDHOOD VICTIMS OF PRIESTS AND DEACONS IN THE ROCKVILLE CENTRE DIOCESE THE JUSTICE AND HEALING THEY DESERVE

THOMAS MC GARVEY WAS SEXUALLY ABUSED AT ST. CATHERINE OF SIENNA PARISH IN FRANKLIN SQUARE, LONG ISLAND, BY FR. ROBERT BROWN (DECEASED) AND HAS BEEN WAITING FOR DECADES FOR HEALING AND JUSTICE

What
A demonstration calling for the Diocese of Rockville Centre, Long Island, New York, to stop opposing statute of limitations legislation in New York State regarding child sexual abuse in order to allow childhood victims of sexual abuse in that diocese and all of New York State to receive justice and healing

When
Wednesday, July 19, 2017 at 11:30 am

Where
On the public sidewalk outside the headquarters of the Diocese of Rockville Centre, 50 North Park Avenue, Rockville Centre, New York 11571-9023

Who
Thomas Mc Garvey, a resident of Queens, New York, who was sexually abused at St. Catherine of Sienna Parish, Franklin Square, New York, by Fr. Robert Brown; and, Dr. Robert M. Hoatson, co-founder and President of Road to Recovery, Inc., a non-profit charity based in New Jersey that assists victims of sexual abuse and their families

Why
The Catholic Conference of New York State, led by the Bishops of the Dioceses of New York State, has for years led an unfair and unjust fight against changes to the New York State statute of limitations law regarding child sexual abuse. It is time for the Catholic Conference, including the new Bishop of Rockville Centre, New York, Bishop John Barres, to cease opposing legislation that would give victims their day in court and allow for justice and healing for child sexual abuse victims. Thomas Mc Garvey, who lives in the Borough of Queens, New York, was sexually abused as a child by Fr. Robert Brown at St. Catherine of Sienna Parish in Franklin Square, Long Island, Nassau County, New York, and he has waited decades for justice and healing. He will discuss the Diocese of Rockville Centre’s opposition to the statute of limitations legislation and urge the new bishop, John Barres, to support laws that are fair and just.

Contacts
Dr. Robert M. Hoatson, Road to Recovery, Inc., 862-368-2800 – roberthoatson@gmail.com
Attorney Mitchell Garabedian, Boston, MA – 617-523-6250 – garabedianlaw@msn.com

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

Cardinal George Pell will keep his honorary role at AFL club Richmond as he faces sex offence charges.

Tigers chief executive Brendon Gale has released a statement, confirming Cardinal Pell still has strong links to the club.

Pell signed with the Tigers in the late ’50s, but did not play for them in the then-VFL before he joined the priesthood.

He has been a vice-patron of the club since the late 1990s.

“In light of Cardinal Pell’s fundamental rights to the presumption of innocence and to a fair trial, he will remain a vice-patron of the club pending the outcome of any trial,” Gale told Fox Footy.

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ROM
T Online

[Fired Cardinal Müller: “Renovation, air conditioning – everything at your own expense!”
It is currently not well for Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Müller, long one of the most important German church men. It was only then that Pope Francis disempowered him in the Vatican. Then accusations in the abuse scandal around the Regensburger Domspatzen happened.]

Es läuft derzeit nicht gut für Kardinal Gerhard Ludwig Müller, lange einer der wichtigsten deutschen Kirchenmänner. Erst entmachtet ihn Papst Franziskus im Vatikan. Dann kommen Vorwürfe im Missbrauchs-Skandal um die Regensburger Domspatzen dazu. Ein Gespräch mit einem Mann, der sich ungerecht behandelt fühlt.

Es ist Anfang Juli in Rom und glühend heiß. Die Klimaanlage brummt. Kardinal Gerhard Ludwig Müller sitzt vor einer großen Bücherwand in seiner Wohnung unweit des Vatikans und deutet auf die Anlage. “Ich bin drei Mal umgezogen, bis ich hier in die Wohnung einziehen konnte. Dann die Renovierung, die Klimaanlage, das alles auf eigene Kosten”, sagt er. Drei Mal umziehen für einen der wichtigsten Posten der katholischen Kirche – den er jetzt allerdings verloren hat.

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ROM
Spiegal

[The dismissed chief of the CDF Cardinal Müller retaliates. Cardinal Müller, who has just been fired as the head of the CDF vociferates his grievances: In Rome, a “hypocritical papal devotion” and “courtly behavior” have dominion. He also has a clear opinion on abuse.]

Kardinal Müller, gerade als Chef der Glaubenskongregation geschasst, macht seinem Unmut Luft: In Rom herrsche eine “scheinheilige Papstdevotion” und “höfisches Gehabe”. Auch zum Thema Missbrauch hat er eine klare Meinung.

Fünf Jahre lang war der ehemalige Regensburger Bischof Gerhard Ludwig Müller Chef der Glaubenskongregation im Vatikan. Pünktlich zum Ablauf seiner Amtszeit entließ ihn der Papst Anfang Juli aus seinen Diensten. Warum, wurde vom Vatikan nicht erklärt. Politische und theologische Differenzen zwischen Franziskus und dem konservativen Müller gelten aber als Hauptgrund.

Müller hatte den Papst in verschiedenen Punkten kritisiert, etwa im Zusammenhang mit dem postsynodalen päpstlichen Schreiben “Amoris Laetitia” (“Die Freude der Liebe”), in dem der Papst die Kommunion für wiederverheiratete Geschiedene unter gewissen Bedingungen möglich macht.

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ROM
T Online

[In the case of child abuse, the German Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Müller sees the Catholic Church wrongly criticized. “It is obvious that the Catholic Church is heavier in the topic of priests being suspected a priori,” said the 69-year-old to the German Press Agency in Rome.]

Rom (dpa) – Der deutsche Kardinal Gerhard Ludwig Müller sieht die katholische Kirche im Fall von Kindesmissbrauch zu Unrecht so scharf kritisiert. “Es ist offensichtlich, dass die katholische Kirche bei dem Thema härter angegangen wird, dass Priester a priori verdächtigt werden”, sagte der 69-Jährige der Deutschen Presse-Agentur in Rom.

“Es gibt Geistliche – Gott sei es geklagt – die solche Verbrechen begangen haben. Aber deshalb kann man nicht die anderen, nur weil sie auch Priester sind, kollektiv verdächtigen. Prozentual gesehen ist das mit Blick auf die Gesamtzahl der Geistlichen in der Welt sogar weniger als bei vergleichbaren pädagogischen Berufsgruppen – was die Straftat natürlich in keinster Weise entschuldigt und das Leiden der Opfer mindert”, sagte er.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Mittelbayerische

[Domspatzen: Cardinal Müller sees no shortcomings.The former Bishop of Regensburg, Gerhard Ludwig Mueller, rejected the accusation that the catastrophic sexual and physical abuse scandal had been mishandled.]

Der ehemalige Regensburger Bischof Gerhard Ludwig Müller hat den Vorwurf einer mangelhaften Aufarbeitung des Missbrauchskandals bei den Domspatzen zurückgewiesen. „Eine „Chronologie der diözesanen Aufarbeitung von 2010 bis 2016“ gibt detaillierte Auskunft über die Tatsachen, die oft weit von verbreiteten Fehlurteilen abweichen“, sagte Kardinal Müller der Deutschen Presse-Agentur in Rom, bevor der Abschlussbericht zu den Vorfällen am Dienstag veröffentlicht wurde.

REGENSBURG.Erst ab 2010 habe es Meldungen von Straftaten gegeben, „die schon Jahrzehnte vor meinem Amtsantritt Ende 2002 begangen wurden. Die meisten Täter waren schon lange zuvor gestorben“, betonte Müller, der Anfang Juli von Papst Franziskus als Präfekt der Glaubenskongregation im Vatikan abberufen wurde. „Um den Opfern zu helfen, wurden Diözesanbeauftragte bestellt, die mit einer Kommission von Experten den Anzeigen sorgfältig nachgehen.“ Müller verwies zudem auf einen Hirtenbrief. Darin habe er die Opfer aufgerufen, sich zu melden.

Betroffene hatten Müller vorgeworfen, die Aufklärung zu behindern. Dies änderte sich unter dem neuen Regensburger Bischof Rudolf Voderholzer. Generalvikar Michael Fuchs räumte deshalb am Dienstag Fehler ein: „Wir sehen heute, dass wir früher manches besser hätten machen können.“ So sei es nicht richtig gewesen, darauf zu warten, dass sich Betroffene meldeten. Man hätte aktiv auf sie zugehen müssen. In dem Abschlussbericht heißt es, Müller müsse eine klare Verantwortung für die strategischen, organisatorischen und kommunikativen Schwächen zugeschrieben werden.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Katholisch

[Domspatzen: Diocese of Regensburg admits mistakes. There have been at least 547 victims of abuse in the past decades at the Regensburger Domspatzen. The bishop is now apologizing and talking about neglect.]

Der Regensburger Generalvikar Michael Fuchs hat Versäumnisse bei der Aufklärung und Aufarbeitung von Übergriffen bei den Domspatzen eingeräumt. “Wir haben alle Fehler gemacht, viel gelernt und sehen heute, dass wir früher manches hätten besser machen können”, sagte Fuchs (Bild oben) am Dienstag in Regensburg. Das Thema sei 2010 “nach bestem Wissen und Gewissen” angegangen worden, was aber “in vielem auch mangelhaft” gewesen sei. Daher habe das Verfahren weiterentwickelt werden müssen.

Zuvor hatte der vom Bistum beauftragte unabhängige Sonderermittler Ulrich Weber seinen Abschlussbericht zur Aufarbeitung der Missbrauchsfällle vorgestellt. Darin beziffert der Rechtsanwalt die Zahl der “hoch plausiblen” Opfer auf 547. Gleichzeitig sagte er aber auch, er gehe weiter von einer Dunkelziffer in Höhe von rund 700 Opfern aus. Schwerpunktmäßig haben sich die Taten laut Bericht in den 1960er und 1970er Jahren ereignet. Bis 1992 sei durchgängig von körperlicher Gewalt berichtet worden.

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VATICAN CITY
Reuters

Philip Pullella

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – Two men who used to run a Vatican-owned children’s hospital were put on trial on Tuesday, accused of diverting nearly half a million dollars of funds to renovate a top cardinal’s luxury flat.

The trial, which puts on public display the challenges Pope Francis faces in trying to clean up the Vatican, began with the court rejecting a defense motion to dismiss, as well as a request to bar journalists.

Giuseppe Profiti and Massimo Spina, respectively the former president and treasurer of the Bambino Gesu hospital in Rome, are charged with spending 422,000 euros ($481,000) in 2013 and 2014 on refurbishing the large Vatican apartment of Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican’s former number two.

The trial was adjourned until Sept. 7, and the court left open the possibility that Bertone, who was not indicted, might be called as a witness.

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KANSAS
KSHB

[with video]

OVERLAND PARK, Kan. – Hours after the Archdiocese of KCK announced the suspension of priest Scott Kallal on Tuesday, a man who claims his daughter was sexually assaulted by Kallal came forward with new allegations.

The Archdiocese announced in a statement Monday afternoon that Kallal was suspended from his position at Holy Spirit Catholic Church in Overland Park after two sources came forward with allegations of wrongdoing.

Church leaders said a preliminary investigation revealed “violations of some of the Archdiocese’s safe environment guidelines which all clerics, employees and volunteers are asked to observe when interacting with young people,” including one incident involving a minor.

On Tuesday, a man claiming to be the father of the child spoke to 41 Action News.

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KANSAS
Washington Times

KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) – An associate pastor at two suburban Kansas City churches is suspended as state child-welfare workers and the archdiocese investigate his conduct, in one case involving a juvenile, the governing Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas said Tuesday.

The archdiocese said in a statement that Father Scott Kallal was pulled from public ministry duties after two sources accused him of “boundary violations.” The archdiocese added that its preliminary investigation “revealed violations of some of the archdiocese’s safe environment guidelines which all clerics, employees and volunteers are asked to observe when interacting with young people.”

Archdiocese spokeswoman Anita McSorley declined to elaborate.

The archdiocese said Kallal’s suspension was announced last weekend during Masses at two churches he served – Overland Park’s Holy Spirit Church and St. Patrick Church in Kansas City, Kansas.

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KANSAS
The Kansas City Star

BY JUDY L. THOMAS
jthomas@kcstar.com

The Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas has suspended a priest after receiving allegations of inappropriate conduct involving two people, one a minor.

In a statement Tuesday, the archdiocese said it received the reports from two sources and conducted a preliminary investigation that revealed violations of some “safe environment guidelines” that all priests, employees and volunteers must observe when interacting with young people. Because one of the “boundary violation” allegations involved a minor, the archdiocese said, it notified the Kansas Department for Children and Families.

The investigation is ongoing, and the archdiocese said its Independent Review Board also is looking into the matter.

The priest, the Rev. Scott Kallal, 35, “has been suspended from the exercise of his public priestly ministry pending the outcome of the DCF and the Archdiocesan investigations and the recommendation of the Independent Review Board,” the archdiocese said in its statement, which was read during Masses last weekend at Holy Spirit Church in Overland Park and St. Patrick Church in Kansas City, Kan.

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NEW ZEALAND
New Zealand Herald

By Chris Morris

Victims of historic abuse in state care are fighting back, demanding justice – in cash and apologies – to help rebuild broken lives. But some are going further.

Darryl Smith says ”blood money” is not enough to rebuild a life destroyed by sexual abuse in two countries.

The Dunedin man spent more than a decade in state care, in New Zealand and Australia, beginning as a 7-year-old boy in the early 1970s.

It was an experience that exposed him to sexual predators at one institution after another, including two run by the same Catholic order – the Brothers Hospitallers of St John of God.

And, despite receiving payouts and apologies on both sides of the Tasman, Smith says it is not enough.

The 53-year-old wants justice in the form of a national inquiry and public apology from the New Zealand Government.

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CURACAO
Curacao Chronicle

WILLEMSTAD – The Public Prosecution has appealed today the sentencing of the Court of First Instance in the case against the pastor of the Rains of Blessing Church, Orlando Balentina (1964).

Balentina was sentenced to nine years in prison on July 5, 2017, for the sexual abuse of various minors and adults who are members of his church. Also as punishment, he is not allowed to work as a pastor for 14 years.

In this case, the Public Prosecution has demanded 18 years and prohibition to work as a pastor for 14 years.

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FLORIDA
WTXL

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) – Shocking details are being revealed about a man who worked with local children.

The Leon County Sheriff’s Office arrested 41-year-old Roshad Thomas on six counts of sex offense against a child.

Thomas is a former youth pastor at a Tallahassee church, who, until recently, was a contracted employee at Maclay School.

A school official tells WTXL Thomas is a former member of the Maclay School faculty. He taught Life Management in the Upper School during the 2016-2017 school year.

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NEW HAMPSHIRE
Boston Globe

By Catie Edmondson GLOBE CORRESPONDENT JULY 18, 2017

St. Paul School’s top administrator offered a defense of the elite preparatory school on Monday while also acknowledging the recent misconduct of male students who documented relationships with girls on a crown.

The letter, sent by Rector Michael G. Hirschfeld, comes on the heels of last week’s announcement that the New Hampshire attorney general’s office has launched a criminal investigation into the school to determine whether administrators engaged in conduct that endangered the welfare of children. Concord police and New Hampshire State Police will assist in the investigation.

Hirschfeld wrote that he was “startled and saddened” by the announcement, and that he would continue to stand up for the students, staff, and faculty of the school.

“I have seen the media characterize the School in ways that stand in nearly complete opposition to the reality we live,” he said. “We are not perfect — you’ve heard me say this before — but what I need to say now, and much more often, is how proud I am of our students and our community.”

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NEW YORK
BishopAccountability.org

Summary of Case: Joseph L. Theisen was a priest of the Archdiocese of New York, ordained in 1959. He was assigned to parishes in Manhattan, Staten Island, Garnersville and the Bronx. There is an unexplained gap in his assignments 1983-1984. In 1987 the archdiocese began to receive allegations of child sexual abuse against Theisen. He was sent to the Servants of the Paraclete’s treatment center in New Mexico, and was “Absent on Leave” until 1994 when he was voluntarily laicized. Three young men reported to the archdiocese in 1994 that Theisen had sexually abused them in the early 1980s, when they were teens. One of them alleged abuse by the priest from 1980-1984. Each of the three received settlements of $20,000, and were required to sign confidentiality agreements.

Theisen went on to live in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where he died in 2013.

Ordained: 1959
Born: June 18, 1933
Died: January 25, 2013

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GUAM
The Guam Daily Post

A former Catholic school student and a former Boy Scout are the latest victims to come forward in separate lawsuits alleging child sex abuse at the hands of men they trusted.

Attorney David Lujan filed lawsuits in the District Court of Guam yesterday on behalf of A.W.C. and T.P.J.

A.W.C., 44, of California, alleges he was sexually abused and raped by his teacher at San Vicente Catholic School in Barrigada.

The complaint, filed against the school, accuses Ray Techaira, a deceased priest and former Catholic school teacher, of exploiting the trust and confidence bestowed upon him by sexually abusing A.W.C when he was 12 years old.

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CHILE
BioBio

[The priest Rodrigo Gajardo was convicted on June 27 after acknowledging that he sexually abused a child in the midst of a religious retreat. In the Schoenstatt movement to which he belongs they say that he was suspended from his functions and that they are waiting for an opinion from the Vatican.]

El sacerdote Rodrigo Gajardo fue condenado el 27 de junio pasado tras reconocer que abusó sexualmente de un menor, en medio de un retiro religioso. En el movimiento Schoenstatt, al cual pertenece, aseguran que fue suspendido de sus funciones y que están a la espera de un dictamen del Vaticano.

En su primera misa de alianza del Movimiento Apostólico de Schoenstatt, en Maipú, el padre Rodrigo Gajardo Figueroa vistió una túnica beige y una estola blanca. Bromeó con los feligreses, citó varios pasajes eclesiásticos y filosofó sobre las problemáticas de la libertad y la justicia. “Tenemos que tener leyes para que nos ordene la vida, para que nos sintamos seguros”, dijo el sacerdote, en medio de un sermón lleno de alusiones a los deberes y derechos de las personas (revisa acá su primera homilía). Ese 18 de julio de 2014, sin embargo, el padre Gajardo omitió un dato importante: él mismo había vulnerado la Ley unos años antes, al abusar sexualmente de un menor en un retiro espiritual del movimiento religioso al que pertenece.

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INDIA
The New Indian Express

KALPETTA: The police on Tuesday arrested the priest against whom the parents of two boys had lodged a complaint of sexual abuse with Meenangadi police station here. Senior police officers said the accused priest, Fr Saji alias Joseph, 40, of Kottiyoor in Kannur, was nabbed by a special team from Mangaluru where he had gone into hiding after the parents of the children lodged the complaint.

He was produced before the court and remanded in judicial custody. The incident came to light on July 14 when the parents of the two boys approached Childline after their wards aged 15 and 14 revealed to them about the sexual abuse incident.

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NEW ZEALAND
Otago Daily Times

By Chris Morris

New Zealand’s most vulnerable children were failed by Church and State, the head of the Catholic Church’s National Office for Professional Standards says.

Bill Kilgallon told ODT Insight the Church’s New Zealand office, created in 2004 to investigate historic abuse claims, had fielded about 22 complaints a year since 2013.

About 20 a year related to ”non-recent behaviour against children”, either within a church setting or involving clergy within the state care system, he said.

”A number of the complaints we’re dealing with would be children who were in state care but placed in an establishment run by the Church – Marylands, for example,” he said.

The complaints of abuse, cruelty and very poor conditions showed the level of care by the State or Church was ”very often very poor”, he said.

And the Church, in particular, ”should have achieved better than the State”, he believed.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Star

CLAIRE LEWIS

A Rotherham MP is seeking a change in the law over compensation for child sex abuse victims.

Sarah Champion has written to the Secretary of State for Justice calling for the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority to stop ruling out payments on the grounds that children were somehow complicit in the abuse.

Since the CICA scheme was launched in November 2012 nearly 700 victims and survivors of child sexual abuse have been refused payments ranging between £1,000 and £44,000, according to figures released under the Freedom of Information Act.

While the law states it is a crime to have sexual activity with anyone under the age of 16, it is claimed that is not reflected in compensation decisions and that payment rules are being interpreted to suggest children can consent to their abuse.

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GERMANY
The Malay Mail Online

AFP

MUNICH, July 19 — The Regensburg Boys Choir has a proud history dating back more than a thousand years, but now finds its reputation tarnished by revelations that hundreds of its young charges suffered physical or sexual abuse.

One of the oldest choirs in continuous existence in the world, it traces its roots back to the year 975, when Bishop Wolfgang of Regensburg set up a cathedral school in the Bavarian town whose pupils were charged with singing the liturgy.

The pupils — only boys and young men are admitted — are called “Domspatzen”, meaning “Cathedral Sparrows.”

The institution comprises a Catholic boarding school and a secondary school where a heavy focus is on learning music.

It has a current enrolment of 320, half of whom live in the boarding school, which has a reputation for tough discipline.

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GERMANY
Aljazeera

Priests and teachers physically or sexually abused more than 500 boys at a Catholic choir school in Germany between 1945 and 1992, according to a report.

Allegations in Tuesday’s report involving the Domspatzen choir at the Regensburg Cathedral Sparrows school were among a spate of revelations of abuse by Roman Catholic clergy in Germany that emerged in 2010.

Many of the 547 victims remembered their time at the school as “the worst time of their lives, marked by fear, violence and helplessness”, said lawyer Ulrich Weber, who was commissioned two years ago by the diocese to probe the cases.

The victims said the school was “prison, hell and a concentration camp”, he added.

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GERMANY
The Times (UK)

David Charter, Berlin
July 19 2017
The Times

The brother of Benedict XVI, the former pope, has admitted slapping boys at a Catholic choir school and has been named as partly responsible for a culture of abuse at the school in Germany where at least 547 boys were victims of physical or sexual assault.

Georg Ratzinger ran the Domspatzen (cathedral sparrows) choir in Regensburg from 1964 to 1994 and said that slapping boys was common practice at the time. He denied knowledge of sexual abuse.

A lawyer brought in to investigate allegations, some dating back to 1945, said in his final report that Mr Ratzinger, 93, could be blamed “for looking away or for failing to intervene”. The report on the school counted 500 cases of physical violence and 67 of sexual violence, committed by 49 perpetrators.

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ILLINOIS
Chicago Tribune

Manya Brachear Pashman
Chicago Tribune

A popular Back of the Yards priest who admitted to sexual misconduct as a teenager has left his Roman Catholic religious order and asked the pope to remove him from the priesthood, according to a letter from the lawyer for the Claretian Missionaries provided as part of a legal settlement.

Bruce Wellems, a former priest at Holy Cross Immaculate Heart of Mary Church, who acknowledged that decades ago, when he was 15, he abused a 7-year-old boy, resigned from the Claretians in the past year, after the victim sued the order.

The victim, Eric Johnson, now 52, said Wellems abused him multiple times when Johnson was 7 years old.

“I could have chosen to remain anonymous, but I did not, which was not easy for my family nor myself. Yet I continue to push for justice,” he said. “He is a danger to the kids and the community.”

Wellems, 60, was barred from active ministry in the Chicago Archdiocese last year after an independent review board uncovered “additional facts that weren’t previously available.” It is unclear whether the review disclosed an additional victim.

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IRELAND
Evening Echo

Jess Casey

THE sale of a site at the former Bessborough Mother and Baby Home should be halted until a full examination of the grounds is carried out, according to a Cork woman who spent time in the institution.

Joan McDermott, originally from Mitchelstown, is calling for the sale at Bessborough to be immediately halted after it emerged plans are underway to sell a portion of the site at Blackrock.

Ms McDermott was separated from her son for 50 years after she gave birth to him while she was interned in the mother and baby home as a teenager.

“Us mothers are convinced there are bodies buried there,” Ms McDermott told the Evening Echo.

“There are mothers still alive, who do not know to this day where their babies are. Mothers who don’t know where their babies are buried.

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IRELAND
IrishCentral

James Wilson @jameswilson1919 July 18, 2017

A councilor from Clondalkin in south Dublin has revealed that he was used as a baby in a vaccine experiment whilst living at a Mother and Baby Home.

Francis Timmons spent the early years of his life at the Madonna Baby Home in Blackrock, Dublin and only learned as an adult that he had been used in medical trials during his time there.

The company GlaxoSmithKline Ireland wrote to Timmons informing him that he received two injections of diphtheria tetanus pertussis (DTP) vaccine alongside 18 other children living at the Madonna Baby Home.

The experiments hoped to solve a number of illnesses prevalent in children, such as diphtheria, tetanus, polio and whooping cough.

Questions were first raised about the use of orphaned children for such trials in the 1990’s and a report published in 2000 for Ireland’s Health Service Executive found that 52 infants from four mother and baby homes had been used in a trial that began in 1960.

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AUSTRALIA
Northern Star

Hamish Broome | 19th Jul 2017

A RETIRED Catholic parish priest who stands accused of several child sexual abuse offences was excused from appearing in Lismore Local Court on Tuesday where his case was mentioned.

Richard St John Cattell, 77, who now lives on the Gold Coast, faces nine historic charges including intercourse with a male between 10 and 17 years old as well as aggravated indecent assault with a boy under his authority.

Cattell served as a parish priest at several NSW parishes in the 1970s and 1980s before being promoted to Vicar-General of the Diocese of Parramatta in the early 1990s.

The offences allegedly occurred during Cattel’s time as a parish priest at various NSW parishes in Sydney and surrounds.

Prosecutor Luke Wiggins told the court on Tuesday the “bulk” of the alleged offences occurred in the Hawkesbury region on the Central Coast, while some of the charges occured at other locations such as Mollymook on the South Coast.

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GERMANY
The New York Times

By MELISSA EDDY
JULY 18, 2017

BERLIN — For decades, a “culture of silence” pervaded a Catholic music school where the brother of a future pope directed a renowned boys’ choir, contributing to an environment in which at least 547 children were abused, a lawyer who carried out an investigation of the mistreatment said on Tuesday.

The estimate of the number of children abused was far greater than a previous figure, 231, that the lawyer gave last year.

The choir — the Regensburg Domspatzen, literally the Cathedral Sparrows — dates to the 10th century and continues to perform at Sunday Mass in Regensburg’s 16th-century Gothic cathedral. The choir’s music director from 1964 to 1994 was the Rev. Georg Ratzinger, whose younger brother, Joseph Ratzinger, reigned as Pope Benedict XVI from 2005 to 2013.

Father Ratzinger, now 93, has apologized for slapping boys during his tenure, and said he stopped administering corporal punishment when the church banned it in 1980. He has denied awareness of sexual abuse taking place, and the new investigation does not implicate him in it.

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